House fires: One person killed in Drachten, another hospitalized in Delft
Firefighters in the Netherlands had their hands full on Tuesday night. A house fire in Drachten killed one person. Another housefire in the historic center of Delft sent one person to the hospital and spread quickly. Firefighters are still working on extinguishing that blaze. There was also a large fire in a commercial property in Nijmegen, and a fire at a scrap yard in Amsterdam caused a stench in the capital.
Drachten
The fire Drachten, Friesland, started in a terraced house on Schuttersveld at around 00:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Firefighters found the deceased victim inside the home while fighting the blaze.
The fire brigade evacuated several homes on the street due to the blaze. The home where the fire started was badly damaged. Adjacent buildings suffered smoke and water damage, the local office for the emergency services, Veiligheidsregio Fryslan, reported.
By 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, the fire brigade had the fire under control but was still working on extinguishing it.
Delft
The fire in Delft started in a home on Nieuwstraat at around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday and spread to several upstairs apartments in that street and two houses on Wijnhaven. The emergency services took one person to hospital with unknown injuries. Firefighters also rescued two cats from different homes while fighting the fire.
The large fire in the center of Delft is now “largely under control,” but extinguishing it completely will still take several hours, the fire brigade reported on Wednesday morning. The affected homes were badly damaged and are uninhabitable, the Veiligheidsregio Haaglanden reported. The fire department expects that one of the buildings will collapse and has therefore cordoned off Nieuwstraat.
Nijmegen
A large fire destroyed a commercial building on an industrial estate in Nijmegen overnight. The blaze on Vlotkampweg was first reported at around 10:00 p.m. The fire brigade responded with eight fire engines and three aerial platforms. They prevented the blaze from spreading to other buildings, but the building where it started was lost.
Several explosions were heard while the fire brigade fought the blaze. According to the fire brigade, vehicles, gas bottles, and barrels in the building exploded due to the heat.
According to De Gelderlander, two garages and a wholesaler of car parts were located in the building.
Amsterdam
In Amsterdam, a fire raged in a scrap yard in the Westelijk Havengebied, causing a lot of smoke and a stench in the area. Veiligheidsregio Kennemerland reported that the fire could be smelled as far as Haarlem.
The fire department used cranes to take apart the scrap yard and extinguish the fire on Vlothavenweg. A fireboat was also deployed.
