Helsinki Rescue Department to set up Rescue Task Force
Publication date 31.1.2025 12.33| Published in English on 31.1.2025 at 12.37
Type:Press release
Helsinki
The Helsinki Rescue Department and the Helsinki Police Department are training together. Photo: Helsinki Police Department
The Helsinki City Rescue Department is developing rescue operations proactively to be able to meet the demands of the changing operating environment in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The Helsinki City Rescue Department is introducing Rescue Task Force (RTF) activities to respond to particularly demanding tasks.
In practice, this means that a rescue team specialised in particularly demanding situations will be established in Helsinki. The members of the task force have applied to the team voluntarily. They are specially trained firefighter-paramedics who have been primarily trained by the Helsinki Police Department. They have also received know-how from other countries.
The purpose of the task force specialising in particularly demanding situations is to rescue patients faster than was previously possible using conventional methods.
“When specially trained firefighters are in charge of evacuations and emergency first aid in danger zones, the police is able to focus on apprehending suspects on site, for example. The police have provided tactical police training for the task force firefighters in order to allow them to carry out their assignments safely”, says Superintendent Patrik Karlsson, Head of the Helsinki command centre.
Specially trained firefighters work under police protection in situations where there is a serious threat of external violence. Such a situation can arise e.g. from the use of weapons during an incident.
The personal protective equipment of the RTF differ from conventional firefighter equipment. Members of the team use ballistic protective equipment, special communications equipment and various pieces of evacuation equipment to quickly save patients.
The group is also able to take the necessary life-saving, immediate emergency measures within threat zones. In the Helsinki region, the task force is ready to be deployed immediately around the clock. The team works in close cooperation with rescue services, emergency medical services and the police. The Helsinki Police Department is dispatched on nearly 200,000 assignments during all hours of the day each year.
“Round-the-clock readiness is essential in order for the police to be accompanied by specially trained firefighters at short notice”, Karlsson says.
The RTF will be introduced in spring 2025 in Helsinki. Other rescue departments in Finland have not yet adopted similar schemes. Corresponding activities can be found in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo among other Nordic capitals.
According to City of Helsinki Rescue Department Rescue Chief Marko Rostedt, the Rescue Task Force operating model should be adopted in other regions in addition to Helsinki.
“The world is changing, and the Rescue Department must monitor the changes in the operating environment carefully and react to them”, Rostedt says.
