From 2023, 177 explosions have damaged residential buildings and the cost to society is hundreds of millions of kroner. Even though the insurance companies cover parts of the cost, innocent residents are hit hard financially.
– There will be costs. You are not fully covered just because you have insurance, says Frank Jansson, the father of the family whose dream of living together in the townhouse area in Hässelby was shattered by the explosion in October.
– I will lose a couple of hundred thousand, at least, says another family member who wishes to remain anonymous. She lived in one of the houses worst hit by the explosion.
During 2023 until today, there have been 177 explosions in Sweden. Of those, 122 blasts have been aimed at residential buildings – that is, villas, terraced houses or multi-family buildings.
84 explosions against apartment buildings
Of the 177 explosions aimed at residential buildings, 84 have been against multi-family buildings.
Some explosions have been smaller, for example so-called bangers, illegal and powerful firecrackers. Others have been very powerful explosions that caused great devastation and altogether cost society hundreds of millions of kroner.
“There is a large number of darkness”
National economist Ingvar Nilsson, who has previously estimated what gun violence has cost society, says that there are significant secondary costs that are often forgotten in the calculation.
– The indirect costs in the form of illness, mental suffering, lost income and police investigations are certainly in the same order of magnitude, sometimes considerably higher, says Ingvar Nilsson.
For the family who bought three townhouses wall to wall on the street where the heavy explosion in Hässelby took place, the plans for the future have been destroyed.
– This closeness to his family, not having grandfather close who is now old and needs help at home, it is clear that it is a loss, says Michaela Zellman.