Tartu wrapping school shelter windows in plastic to protect against attacks
The City of Tartu has begun covering windows in educational institutions' emergency shelters with plastic film to stop them from shattering during a potential attack and injuring staff or pupils.
Last week, work was taking place on the ground floor of Karlova School during the summer holidays.
Windows in shelters and along routes leading to them were covered with film that helps hold the glass together in the event of an explosion, for example, due to a stray attack drone.
Ole Raudsepp, head of Kileprofi, the company carrying out the work, said the shards of glass can be deadly and that the film holds them together.
"If there is a bomb explosion, then after the glass breaks, without the film, those shards fly into the room," he said.
Exactly how the glass breaks depends on the force of the explosion. In a smaller attack, the window panes should remain in place, albeit broken. "In the case of a stronger explosion, the window will be blown out together with the frames, and we cannot hold that in place with film," Raudsepp added.
Tartu Deputy Mayor Martin Bek said the city government wants school shelters to be properly prepared.
"What the experience of our Ukrainian colleagues has shown is that windows should be covered with film to protect against shards. They do this themselves as well. At the same time, ventilation, lighting and the possibility of charging devices from the power grid – we are treating all of these as a whole and developing them," he told ERR.
The city is investing €850,000 in crisis resilience this year. The deputy mayor could not yet say how much of this will be spent on covering windows, as the procurement 34 buildings, mainly kindergartens, is still underway.
For the smaller part, mainly covering the windows of shelters in school buildings, the city has budgeted €64,000.
"One of the best options is being used here, namely 3M Ultra800, which is the name of the film. It is a multilayer safety film that is particularly resistant in the event of an explosion. If a weaker version is used, it tears more easily and is not as bomb-resistant," Raudsepp said.
Tartu is aiming to complete the work this year, but window-filming work will continue at social and administrative facilities next year.
Several stray Ukrainian attack drones have been found in Tartu County, although not in the city of Tartu itself, over the last year after they were likely knocked off course by Russian GPS interference.
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Editor: Helen Wright, Marko Tooming
