Brannbil-Norge («Fire Truck Emergency») First published 12th of December 2012. http://www.vg.no/spesial/201 2/brannbiler/ Imagine you wake up, and find your house on fire. Or you regain consciousness, trapped in the wreckage of your own car. Who do you have to rely on to come to your rescue? In Norway, it might just be a 40 year old fire truck, more suitable for a museum than saving lives. While the central government is responsible for maintenance and changing police cars and ambulances, funding and running Norway’s 325 fire departments is left to local municipalities. Based on information from Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), VG for the first time mapped out every single one of Norway’s 2000 fire trucks to show the miserable state of the local fire departments. Among other, the findings revealed that - 40 percent of fire trucks are 20 years or older - The average age of Norwegian fire trucks are 16,9 years - 257 of the fire trucks are veterans (30 years or older). The veterans are spread over 157 different fire departments. After about two weeks in the making, the story was published as the cover story of our newspaper and several online stories 12th of December 2012. The pillar of the project is the unique, interactive infographic, specially developed and designed for the fire truck project. Here, readers are able to find the state of their own
local fire department, and compare the different FDs and municipalities, through numerous options of sorting the information. The infographic also allowed readers to upload pictures of every single fire truck. Within the first 24 hours of publishing, readers stunningly submitted pictures of nearly 40 percent of all Norwegian fire trucks. Readers are able to share the state of their local fire department on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media. The main infographic and the related news stories are shared more than 6000 times on Facebook, and are mentioned in several hundred tweets. All stories and the infographic also included the possibility for readers to share their opinion through Facebook comments on each article. The first two days produced hundreds and hundreds of comments – and tips/input on stories to our journalists.
In addidtion to our online project we had several articles in our printed edition. This is the front page 12th of December.
Impact The project sparked the first ever national debate about the local fire department’s organization and ability to handle critical situations. Two weeks after breaking the story, the Norwegian minister of justice announced a “complete revitalization” of Norwegian fire departments and the way they are organized. News stories included:
These fire trucks guarding your home
Jan Erling (63) trapped 4,5 hours, loses leg – fire truck (32) unable to free him from wreckage
Unions demands state controlled fire departments
Municipality ditches lights, sirens to save money
Fire fighters does volunteer work to raise money for new fire truck
Fire trucks loses tires, brakes, doors during emergency