4.8.09

1 Background of the Museum, General Section



In the yard of Käpylä Fire Station around  the mid - 1960s. At that time my father was seriously interested in photography, a hobby he later gave up. The pictue is staged up and double exposure has occurred accidentally. My father 's idea was to photograph the little man wearing  a helmet at the fire station  with his favourite toy fire engine"  Photo by Matti Kivi 




"My childhood home was next to a fire station, and much of my childhood was spent in the station. Most of the items in this display case are from that period.


One thing that deserves mention is my childhood drawings, such as the one I made at the age of five, a pencil rendering of a big warehouse fire in Helsinki in 1964, and also the self-portrait as fireman at the age of seven.


The designs for fire engines and ambulances I made in school notebooks when I was 11–13 belong to the same category. 


Another category worthy of mention are the staged photos taken by my father in the mid-1960s where I pose in the yard of the fire station with toy fire trucks and a helmet on my head, and also the snapshot of a few small fire engines in an operative situation on the floor. Some of the toy engines in the collection are the same as in the photos. Most of the other photos are from the archives of the City of Helsinki Rescue Department, and they show vintage firefighting equipment and firemen I knew from the next-door station.


The items on display also include a few publications that represent technical firefighting literature I was given as a child, and read many times. These include The Fireman's Encyclopaedia and Fire Prevention Diagram with Legend and Helsinki Firemen's Handbook with Street Directory. The artistic rarities in this section include an expressionist watercolour on the theme of a forest fire from 1971."












Burning warehouse's  in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, summer 1964

Drawing made at age 5 on the basis of news footage  seen on neighbor's black and white TV.





Self portrait as a fireman,  age 7.








The ship "Finnhansa" is burning at Hietalahti yards in Helsinki 1965














Forest fire, watercolour  at the age of 11, 1971















Firefighting tactical map (1971/72)





Photo: Matti Kivi