Water and heating still cut off at Kontula shopping centre after fire as businesses and customers criticise lack of communication
Water and heating remain shut off at Helsinki’s Kontula shopping centre nearly a week after a destructive fire, with business owners and customers voicing frustration over poor communication, reports Finnish public broadcaster Yle.
Parturist Rita Juvonen has kept her salon open despite the outage, hauling heavy water canisters to maintain basic operations. The fire, which broke out in storage areas on Easter Sunday night, damaged critical infrastructure, leaving parts of the older section of the shopping centre without running water or heat since Monday.
At least two restaurants, a pharmacy, a state-run alcohol retailer (Alko), another hair salon, and a grocery store remain completely closed. Other businesses have improvised: nearby pubs are manually flushing toilets with bucket water, while a café serves food in disposable containers since dishwashing is impossible.
A water tank has been set up in the northern parking lot for residents and businesses to collect clean water, and three portable toilets were installed on Wednesday evening.
Frustration over lack of updates
Both business owners and customers have expressed confusion, as official updates have been sparse. Local activist Marjut Klinga has taken to sharing information in Facebook groups and organising a support event, Tukirundi, on Saturday to boost morale and show solidarity with affected businesses.
“We felt we needed to bring some positivity to the daily lives of residents and entrepreneurs,” Klinga said. “Despite everything, this shopping centre is an important meeting place for us.”
Some restaurants on the older side of the centre were ordered to close on Thursday evening, reportedly due to food safety concerns linked to the water outage. The Randa Cafe announced its temporary closure late Thursday via Facebook, though it had remained open earlier in the day.
Repairs underway but delays persist
Kaija Niemi, CEO of Länsimäki Property Services, which manages the site, said a bypass line for cold water has been constructed and is nearing completion, though it was not yet operational as of Friday morning. Restoring hot water and heating, however, will take significantly longer due to severe damage to an electrical hub in the fire.
Niemi acknowledged communication gaps, noting that while the company has sent three electronic updates to businesses this week—including a bilingual bulletin on Wednesday—critical information has often been unavailable. “The biggest problem is that we simply haven’t had the answers,” she admitted.
The fire originated in storage areas inaccessible to the public. Authorities have not yet provided a timeline for full restoration of services.