Massive fire breaks out at Amsterdam electric scooter storage; Huge plumes of smoke
An extraordinarily large fire broke out at an industrial site along the far western portion of Amsterdam sent extremely dense plumes of black smoke over the city. There were no injuries reported, but the large amount of smoke produced by the fire triggered an NL-Alert warning people in the area.
The fire broke out just after 3 p.m. on Friday on Nieuwe Hemweg in the Westpoort district of Amsterdam. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Initially, several electric scooters were on fire outside of the location, but the flames quickly intensified.
"The fire has spread to the storage facility next to the electric scooters. The fire department has given up on this building and is allowing it to burn out in a controlled manner," the Amsterdam-Amstelland regional emergency services office said.
Firefighters quickly raised the alarm twice, before declaring the incident a major fire at 3:28 p.m. Several ambulances were dispatched to the scene along with a medical trauma team traveling by helicopter. This was strictly as a precaution, a spokesperson told ANP.
A Grip 1 regional emergency was declared by 3:45 p.m., making more equipment and personnel available for the response. The protocol also calls for all responding emergency workers to organize under a single incident commander.
People in a 40-square kilometer area, mainly south of the fire, likely received an NL-Alert sent by authorities to mobile phones. The warning called affected residents and visitors to take precautions.
"Stay out of the smoke! Close windows and doors. Switch ventilation systems off," the message stated. The smoke was starting to decrease a bit by 4:45 p.m., the emergency office said.
The warning was sent to people in an area bordered by Spaarnwoude Park in the northwest, to Amstelveen in the southeast. It covers people in the Nieuw-West, West, Centrum, and Zuid districts of Amsterdam, as well as large parts of Schiphol Airport, Badhoevedorp, Zwanenburg, Halfweg, and possibly portions of Haarlemmermeer, Aalsmeer, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.
