Prevention and precautions

Torsby Municipality conducts an active policy to assure the safety of its residents. Our aim is to reduce the number of accidents and be well prepared for events of crisis. This is what you can do to minimize the risks.

Fire prevention

On the website of the Swedish Fire Protection Association (Brandskyddsföreningen), you will find useful advice and tips to prevent fires in your home.

Being prepared for crisis

What can you do to prepare yourself for the event of crisis, when there is no water, electricity or heating, or when it is impossible to go to the shops for food? Here are some useful tips to prepare yourself.

Precautions in summer

• water jugs or buckets
• camping cooker with fuel
• grill (only to be used outside!)
• matches
• candles
• food and drinks (food with long shelf life, water, soft drinks)
• water purification tablets (available at the drugstore)
• means to dispose of waste
• first-aid kit
• transistor radio
• flashlight
• extra batteries for radio and flashlight
• disposable dinner ware
• coarse salt

Precautions in winter

When it is cold and dark outside, it is all the more important to have sufficient sources of light and warmth in your home. Be careful, however, with open fires and make sure to let in fresh air if you are burning candles or kerosene lamps. In addition to what you need in summertime, you need:

• kerosene lamp (with wick) and fuel
• heat source or fireplace
• fuel for the heat source
• warm clothes
• bedding for cold temparatures (when the whole family sleeps in the same room, it will be easier to keep each other and the room warm!)
• thermos

Power cuts

Be prepared for power cuts! We are used to always having electricity at our disposal, but power cuts can happen and sometimes they take a longer time than expected to repare. Especially for the times of year when it is cold outside, it is necessary to make some provisions at home.

You will need:

• food for a few days that does not need to be stored in refrigerator or fridge, such as milkpowder, muesli, dried pasta and cans
• kerosene stove
• water jugs
• warm clothes and a good sleeping bag
• flashlight, headlights, candles, matches and lighters
• battery radio with extra batteries

Remember that mobile phones will only function as long as the transmittor masts have sufficient battery back up. Listen to the radio to be informed about the duration of the power cut.

Read also the Practical advice in the event of power cuts of the Swedish Energy Agency.

In the event of crisis

In the event of crisis, it is important to inform and be informed as quickly and correctly as possible. The municipality is responsible for crisis management and will provide for an information centre.

The municipality will make information available first of all through the common means of communication, such as telephone, internet and mass media. Information may also be disseminated throughout the municipality via posters, newsletters or other media.

Call 113 13 to get information about what is going on, or visit Torsby Municipality's homepage or www.krisinformation.se.

So-called 'important messages to the public' (VMA – viktigt meddelande till allmänheten) are used in the event of serious accidents and crisis, when crucial services or functions in society are being disrupted or in the case of other extraordinary events. These messages are disseminated through radio and television.