Three hospitalized after two separate fires in Den Helder, Valkenburg

A fire in a care institution in Den Helder on Sunday night left two residents injured to such an extent that they needed hospitalization. The resident of a flat in Valkenburg also required hospital treatment after a fire in his home early on Monday morning.

The fire department received the first report of the fire in the care institution on Willem Barentszstraat in Den Helder at around 8:42 p.m. on Sunday. Firefighters quickly got it under control.

“The curtains of one home caught fire. That caused a lot of smoke, so some of the residents had to go outside,” a spokesperson for the local security region said to NU.nl. The hospitalized residents’ injuries were not life-threatening, the spokesperson said. The fire department is investigating the cause of the fire.

The Valkenburg fire broke out at around 5:15 a.m. in a flat above a former restaurant on Burgemeester Heunssingel. The fire department responded with multiple vehicles and had the blaze under control by around 6:00 a.m.

The resident of the apartment was rushed to a hospital in Maastricht with “quite a few burns,” a spokesperson of the local security region, Veiligheidsregio Zuid-Limburg, said to the Telegraaf. The cause of the fire is unknown.