The Helsinki Railway Storehouse Fire, May 5, 2006

An arson burned down an old railroad storehouse in the center of Helsinki, May 5th. Apparently, nobody was hurt. The odd thing was that the storehouse was meant to be taken down on the next Monday. In about a year, there will be a new concert hall anyway.

I happened to be around, like many other people, as you see. I took a few photos of people taking photos of the fire. Most of them were cam phone users; digital cameras appeared in about 45 min later, when people had already managed to go home to get their cameras.

Personally, I think these photos tell about where we are today: there are always cameras around to render things end events visible and memorable. Appropriately enough, I had just been discussing with Esko Kurvinen about his upcoming doctoral thesis, which deals mostly with cam phones. When we saw smoke on the horizon, we quickly finished our meals and went to see what was going on.

A view from the south. The buiding in the middle is the museum of modern art. The parliament is behind it on the left side. // 9:54.

Professionals were there, taking pictures. This guy was taking picures from a terrazzo from next to the fire. The building is owned by the largest newspaper in the country. Conveniently enough, some people managed to see the fire from the bar while drinking beer during a nice, warm evening.

Fire... // ...in a camphone#1... // ...in a camphone#2 (this is a good one!). // 9:58

My colleague Esko Kurvinen taking pictures of people taking pictures. Silly, but I took a picture of him taking pictures of... This is towards the railroad, in the horizon, there are the traditional working-class neighborhoods. // 10:02

Crowds; at least two guys are using a camphone in this shot.

Fire. The massive building in the background is the parliament.

Another fellow using his camera. This is a pretty good one: you can actually see flames on his screen.

More camphones... // ...and still more...

Fire from another angle. The building in the background is the national museum.

A picture from tomorrow? Go anywhere in industrialized world, and you will see something like this taking place. You can count at least four camphones and digital cameras from this picture of a crowd watching the fire. The curvy thing on the left is the museum of modern art. // 10:16

A detail from the previous image. This is not the best picture in the world (it's difficult to shoot in the dark with digital camera), but you can actually see flames on this guy's screen. The white building (you see a detail only) in the background is Finlandia Hall, arguably the most prestigeous concert and meeting hall in these shores.

Back at home: this is picture from a direct newscast ("suora" is Finnish for "direct") by the Finnish Broadcasting Company. It is almost incomprehensible, but impressive anyway. My interpretation is that this is taken either from the roof of the parliament, or from a helicopter (unlikely). // 11:06