On 14 October the first Finnish forces reached the vicinity of Rovaniemi. These consisted of the troops of Jaeger Brigade (part of the Finnish Armored Division) advancing from Ranua. Finnish forces found out that one of the bridges crossing the Kemijoki river was still intact and moved to capture it. The German failure to demolish the bridge was due to the detonation of the ammunition train which exploded with enough force that in addition to devastating most of the town it also threw the explosives the Germans had planned to use for destroying the bridge into the river even though the station was 3 km away. Finnish forces reached the bridge while it was intact however the German rearguard managed to push Finns off the bridge long enough for the demolition. This stranded the Jaeger Brigade on the southern side of the river opposite of the withdrawing Germans since there were no other immediate means for crossing the river.