Major fire at Dutch coconut company; N605 highway closed

A major fire is raging at a company in Boekel, Noord-Brabant. A lot of smoke is released and the fire is causing traffic problems on the N605 highway, according to the fire department. As a result, the highway is closed. Traffic is being diverted, reports the Noord-Brabant safety region.

The fire has broken out at Dutch Plantin, a producer of coconut as raw material, in the industrial area de Vlonder. Firefighters are on the scene with a variety of equipment. Residents are advised to close windows and doors because of the smoke. An NL alert has also been sent out for this purpose.

The fire department expects that the firefighting operations will take all day and post-fire operations may take several days. Because the roof structure is no longer reliable, it can only be extinguished from the outside. This is less effective, said a spokesman for the security region, which means it will take longer.

The fire broke out around 00:30 a.m., probably due to scalding, in the warehouse, where at least 10,000 tons of coconut were stored, according to the spokesperson. The building burned "quite strongly," the spokesperson said.

However, the fire department did not measure any hazardous materials and no one was injured.