Not sure if this is in the right sub-forum but I'll give it a go:
As you may have notived there was a terrorist attack in Stockholm, Sweden last week on Friday.
A man hijacked a truck and drove it down a pedestrian street, Drottninggatan, killing four and injuring 19 along the way.
A firefighter wrote about it from his perspective, and I translated it for a post at a different forum but I thought some members here might find it interesting as well.
So here it is:
As you may have notived there was a terrorist attack in Stockholm, Sweden last week on Friday.
A man hijacked a truck and drove it down a pedestrian street, Drottninggatan, killing four and injuring 19 along the way.
A firefighter wrote about it from his perspective, and I translated it for a post at a different forum but I thought some members here might find it interesting as well.
So here it is:
I work at Kungsholmen fire station and we were over at Skeppsholmen since we have water diving training on Fridays. We had just packed up to return to the station when we heard the call over the radio.
It wasn't directed at us. But we can tell from what we hear: Truck, Drottninggatan, many injured. We understand at once that it's an attack with many injured.
We decide then and there not to return to the station and retrieve the fire trucks, instead we head directly to the scene in our diving vehicles in order to start medical treatment with the resources we have available. We understand that time is of an essence and that many need our help immediately.
We get information along the way that we're to stage at the intersection of Olof Palmes Gata and Sveav?gen. Traffic is chaotic so the easiest route takes us onto Sl?jdgatan in parallell with Drottninggatan and with the crashed truck in the ?hl?ns' facade just a hundred meters away from us.
When we arrive at Sl?jdgatan we see a very seriously injured person in a doorway being tended to by civilians. When I step in and tell them that I'm a firefighter and that they should step aside the man who is holding the badly maimed leg of the injured person looks up and tells me that he's a doctor. A woman who is treating a bad head wound on the injured says that she's a nurse. I wind up in a situation where individuals with advanced medical training are already present. So we assign two firefighters to support them rather than take control over the situation.
With that situation under control we decide to head down on Drottninggatan since we fear that more injured and dead are on the street. We split up into two groups that head in opposite directions on Drottninggatan. We meet the chief from the ?stermalm force that is the initial incident commander on the scene, he's struggling to get an overview of a chaotic and large incident scene.
When we get to Kungsgatan, where the ?stermalm force is located and providing life support to a person, we also see that there's a dead person in the middle of the street. One understands that the speed of the truck must have been great when one sees the remains of the person.
Something that struck me when we got down on Drottninggatan is both silence and explosive speed.
The traces after the truck makes it look like a war zone, parts from the truck, run down street signs, clothes and blood traces are visible all over Drottninggatan. The concrete blocks that are there to limit the speed are spread out, a dark trail of hydaulic oil where the truck has gone by is clearly visible. A Securitas armored car is smashed up and a large concrete block has been flung into the store window of Stadium. Flower pots as tall as a man are shattered and there are easter lillies in a layer over the asphalt.
The only things I can hear are the police screaming for people to get out of the way, otherwise people are silent. No one is screaming in panic. We hear someone calling for help from the truck. A unit from ?stermalm is there, working on extrication and firefighting.
Back to the injured in the doorway on Sl?jdgatan. We realize pretty quickly that the person won't make it if she remains on the scene. Doctors come running from the Cityakuten urgent care center that have closed down in order to provide medical assistance to injured. A doctor administers morphine at the scene and we then load her into one of our diving vehicles. It's not possible to get an ambulance to the spot, there's a traffic chaos in the city, so we drive across H?torget plaza to Karolinska hospital and offload her. At the same time as we arrive there ambulances carrying other injured also arrive. The hospital staff is ready to receive the injured. We offload quickly and immediately head back downtown where a force from Br?nnkyrka fire station has arrived and started working on trying to extract the person trapped underneath the truck.
There are incredibly intense moments at the scene. In addition to those that were working to save the person in the doorway when we arrived civilian doctors and nurses come up and report to us wanting to assist. A doctor tells me he's been to three war zones. I'm deeply impressed by that. It's amazing how helpful people are at the scene. They stayed for two hours just waiting for an assignment. We can learn a lot from what happened.
I've been on the job for 25 years and I'm used to people standing there watching or taking pictures or just pass by accident sites, and suddenly this is the day many choose a different path and want to help. They understood that they couldn't just run and save themselves, instead actively choose to stay and help others instead. There were many that made that active choice this past Friday. So in addition to us who do our job there are many anonymous heroes. A thought that strikes me is that we who work with this go back to our everyday life where we talk to others at the station or gather strenght with our families.The others who were there, who do they talk to?
Another thing that impresses me is the unit from Br?nnkyrka fire station that arrived at the truck at 3:10pm and who chose to remain and complete the extrication of the person trapped under the truck. They had the opportunity to be relieved but chose to stay because they wanted to finish the job in a good and dignified manner. I think what needs to be emphasized is the cameraderie and endurance exhibited by everyone. Everyone did an incredibly good job.
A lot of what we do has to do with training, experience and instincts. Everyone did something a little bit extraordinary on Friday. The incident as such, the injured and the dead was not something special to us, it was like a large traffic accident. But the event with a truck intentionally tring to run over people, that was extraordinary.
On Saturday we were down on Drottninggatan for four hours and cleaned up, we took away bloody blankets, cleaned away blood and removed human parts in a dignified manner so that Drottninggatan would be able to open again. We were greeted by warmth from all these fellow people that had brought flowers. They came up and put flowers on the fire truck and police cars. Everyone is showing an incredible degree of appreciation and it feels great.
We take care of eachother. Everyone has families with kids, wives and next of kin that need us to come home again. They know that we've been in the ?war zone? in the words of the media and are concerned. I felt a greater than usual need to come home and touch ground before working again on Saturday morning. We talked through the event on Saturday morning together in the team.
For the sake of the family we have to recount what we've experienced in a nuanced manner. We can't let us be dragged along by the picture painted in the media. If a bomb had exploded it had been something special, or if we'd faced people shooting at us as we trying to put out the truck or save people in distress. But we weren't exposed to that. The image in the media and the reality does not match entirely. In the media they talk about terrorism but for us it's a large incident scene intentionally created by a man that has choosen to hurt and kill civilians.
In conclusion I'd like to say that the cooperation between police, firefighters and EMS worked amazingly well and without prompting. Not to mention all the civilians. Add to that the effort of the Br?nnkyrka unit at the truck and the conscious choice they make. Despite starting work at 8:30 am they keep going until 11:30 pm which is fantastic. Above all to the person under the truck but also because everyone was aware of the serious situation and the risks they were taking. No words can describe what they did.
Stefan Nilsson, Firefighter, Kungsholmen.