Phosphorus covered rocks spontaneously catch fire in child's pram

The fire department in Cadzand, Zeeland extinguished a strange fire in a vacation home on Sunday. The family had picked up some rocks while walking on the beach earlier that day and put them in the bottom of a pram. Back in their vacation home in Nieuwvliet-Bad, the rocks spontaneously caught fire. It turns out the rocks were covered in phosphorous, the fire department said on Facebook.

The family picked up the rocks while walking on the beach in Nieuwvliet. The beach in Nieuwvliet and Cadzand had been replenished - sand was sprayed onto the beach to make the layers of sand thicker and reverse the effect of erosion. According to the fire brigade, it is possible that with these replenishments, rocks came along that had been lying under old ammunition for years. The old ammunition likely leaked the phosphorous onto the rocks.

The fire brigade extinguished the fire and ventilated the home. Everything that came into contact with the rocks, was put outside. Nobody was injured in the fire. The part of the beach where the rocks were found was searched by the fire brigade, but no other phosphorous covered rocks were found.