Göteborgsbranden 1998 - Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och ...

c) journalists. The study on confidence is based on annual opinion surveys among the
Swedish and western Swedish public.
The study was commissioned by the Swedish National Board of Psychological Defence
and conducted by researchers at Örebro and Göteborg universities.
Authority crisis management and communication
For a number of years, the City of Gothenburg has had a crisis plan for managing major
social disturbances, accidents and disasters. This plan encompasses City Hall and
district/local authorities within the municipality, as well as other authorities – fire prevention,
police, medical and military. According to this plan, a common crisis management
group (the “Disaster Co-ordination Group”) will be mobilised, in the event of a crisis, in
specially adapted premises in Gothenburg’s central fire station, along with an information
staff consisting of involved authorities' information managers.
Slightly more than one hour after the fire alert, all actors in the crisis management group
– including the chair of the municipal executive board and the city administrator – are in
place and occupying the room next to the rescue management team (the time is now 1:00
a.m.). The organisation has gone smoothly. The system had been tested in recent years
during a major tram accident in the centre of Gothenburg in 1992 and during a severe
snowstorm in western Sweden in 1995 – as well as earlier, in connection with a fire on board
the passenger ferry Scandinavian Star in 1990. In comparison with these earlier events, the
people now summoned are qualified to work with social as opposed to technical problems.
Information to the media is one of three prioritised measures (in addition to debriefing of
returning fire and ambulance personnel and procurement of operational resources sufficient
to restrain the fire). A press centre is arranged at the fire station. At this point, the extent of
the accident in terms of number of fatalities and injured is already known.
In order to receive and support relatives, the crisis management group decides immediately
to mobilise crisis centres in the city districts as stipulated in the crisis plan. Approximately
30 such crisis centres are established (see below).
One initial press conference is held at 2:30 a.m. at one of the hospitals to which many of
the injured youth have been sent. At this point, the national public service radio and a private
national TV company (TV4) have already broadcast the news, and the major local morning
newspaper has stopped its printing presses. The story is also picked up by the BBC.
At 3:30 a.m., the first press conference is held at the press centre, where all subsequent information
from authorities is brought together. On this occasion, the commanding fire officer
states, among other things, that the fire “might be a case of arson”. Press conferences are
then held approximately every second hour during that night and the following morning.
A few hours after the fire – at about 2:00 a.m. – the Government is alerted. The Prime
Minister and the Minister of Defence (who is also responsible for civil defence) are awoken
and, after a meeting, fly to Gothenburg in the morning. During the day, they together visit
the scene of the fire and a local church that has become a meeting place for relatives and
others affected; they also participate in one of the press conferences and are present during
an evening memorial service at the cathedral.
A number of European TV teams arrive in the morning, and at the 12:00 press conference
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