Swedish fire engineer Samuel Andersson has called on rescue services to be given more training on bombings explosions in order to increase their safety while performing their duties.
Andersson, who works as a fire engineer at the rescue service of Östra Götaland, said that many rescue workers lack the knowledge to safely assess conditions of buildings that have undergone heavy explosions, Sveriges Radio reports.
“We at the rescue service are not used to assessing the strength of buildings that have been damaged from a blast in that way. It was in many ways a new situation that we have not practised or been educated so much about, and that is something we have to get better at,” Andersson said.
Andersson was in charge of operations following the large-scale explosion that rocked an apartment building in Linköping last year and saw 25 residents injured as well as widespread damage to the building itself.
While the Swedish Agency for Social Protection and Preparedness (MSB) is able to assess the condition of buildings after explosions, Andersson noted that it took time for them to arrive at sites.
He said that rescue services need to be able to make judgements on the spot in order to facilitate any potential rescue operations as soon as possible and suggested that such large-scale explosions would likely occur again.
In 2019, Sweden saw over 250 explosions and bombings according to the Swedish Crime Prevention Council (Bra) but only seven people were convicted in cases relating to bombings that year.
Head of the national bomb protection Marie Borgh blamed the incredibly low rate of convictions on the difficulty in prosecuting individuals connected to bombing cases.
Bombings have continued into 2020, with a major explosion taking place in Östermalm last month. It was later revealed that the building, a residential apartment in a trendy area, was used as a drug-dealing centre for high-profile clients.