Rotterdam radio back on the air after broadcast tower fire

By Janene Pieters on March 31, 2016 - 07:22
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Emergency services fighting a fire in the broadcasting tower on the Waalhaven in Rotterdam, 30 Mar 2016 (Photo: @BuurtprAlbrw/Twitter). (Emergency services fighting a fire in the broadcasting tower on the Waalhaven in Rotterdam, 30 Mar 2016 (Photo: @BuurtprAlbrw/Twitter))

The Rotterdam broadcasting tower that caught fire on Wednesday is back online, a spokesperson for owner Alticom announced shortly after midnight. All radio stations that use the tower and had problems broadcasting, should be back on the air by Thursday morning, ANP reports.

The Waalhaven tower's power was turned off so that firefighters could extinguish the fire that raged on the ground floor. Both public and commercial radio stations, including Radio 1 and Radio 4, were poorly or not received in the Rotterdam area.

An 63-year-old Alticom technical assistant was stuck on the 17th floor of the tower for some time. Firefighters eventually reached him and escorted him down safely. He was lightly injured in the incident, but said he was not scared at any time, according to RTV Rijnmond.

The fire was extinguished late on Wednesday afternoon and technicians were able to do the first inspections around 5:00 p.m.

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