The Jägala winter waterfall attracts numerous visitors every year. This year, however, those interested became so bold that the municipality was forced to limit access for the protection of the people themselves.
According to Marko Raudlam, a public order specialist who has been working in the Jõelähtme municipality for almost 15 years, this is the first time he knows that access to the waterfall needs to be restricted.
“You go down the mountain on sleds, you run on the ice, you go behind a frozen waterfall, under it, you’re under this big mass of ice. If it breaks free from there, it just kills you,” Raudlam said.
“They need to be able to lay a finger on it, because otherwise it seems like just a beautiful view is nothing,” he added.
The Kehra municipality and rescue team initially put up warning signs, but according to Raudlam they were not taken at all. When they started climbing up the frozen waterfall last Sunday, the municipality reached its limit and earlier this week the danger zone was cordoned off. The Municipality cannot do anything else.
Although this warning tape should indicate that moving forward is dangerous, the fresh footprints betray that some people have still ventured beneath the shore.
There were a few people interested in watching the waterfall on Friday, most of whom remained behind the danger tape.
Robert, who had come from the capital to explore the waterfall, considered the restrictions perfectly reasonable.
“The water flows and from there all the icicles can fall. This is the point. /…/ Here you see that everything is about to fall. In the old days, people crossed the back. /…/ The edge it was overcome when there was ice, but now the water flows,” Robert said.
However, if you still want to know what is happening behind the ice wall, there is no need to put your life in danger. All this can be seen thanks to drones.
Even in summer, walking under the waterfall is dangerous because the upper limestone is loose and can break at any moment.
2024-01-26 19:30:00
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