Joensuu considers paid firewood lockers after weekly thefts

Joensuu is considering installing paid firewood lockers after people repeatedly take the city’s free firewood without permission, Yle reports. The city says contacting suspected offenders has been more effective than filing police reports.

The city provides free firewood for hikers at Kuhasalo and Utra, popular outdoor areas near the centre, so visitors can make fires at designated campfire spots. It stopped delivering wood there last spring because people were taking it for other purposes, but resumed deliveries in late summer. The misuse then started again.

Last Saturday, a group of adults and children drove to the firewood store in Utra and began loading wood into their car in the afternoon, according to Petri Inkinen, the city’s maintenance manager. He said people take wood every week.

The city has camera surveillance at both locations. It checks vehicle registration numbers and tries to call suspected offenders. The city sometimes files police reports, but Inkinen said they have not led to action. He described the offences as minor, while noting that police have been willing to cooperate.

The proposed lockers would work like parcel lockers, with around ten pieces of firewood in each compartment, opened for a small fee. The city estimates the machines would cost tens of thousands of euros in total and will wait to see how the level of misuse develops before deciding whether to buy them.