Four hospitalized, 8 homes uninhabitable after Arnhem fire; Dozens evacuated in Utrecht
A fire on Kinsbergenstraat in Arnhem on Sunday left eight homes uninhabitable. Four people were admitted to the hospital. Emergency services evacuated around 30 apartments in a building on Hanoidreef in Utrecht on Monday morning due to a fire. One resident had to go to the hospital.
The fire in Arnhem on Sunday took firefighters around 11 hours to get under control, the emergency services reported. The fire started in a house on Kinsbergenstraat in the Presikhaaf neighborhood and quickly spread to the other seven homes in the row.
Four residents of the home where the fire started had to go to the hospital. A woman and child managed to bring themselves to safety via the roof, the fire department said. The emergency services evacuated over 100 homes in the neighborhood.
Due to a large amount of smoke, emergency services quickly escalated the situation to a Grip 2, a protocol used when an incident affects an entire municipality and surrounding region. It calls for first responders to organize under a single commander and establish a regional command post.
The fire department first reported the fire just after noon on Sunday. At 11:00 p.m., they reported having the blaze under control. Fighting the fire was complicated by the solar panels on the roofs of the eight affected homes. The panels prevented the extinguishing water from reaching the fire, NU.nl reports. Firefighters removed the solar panels from several roofs and sawed one roof open to get water inside.
The fire left the eight homes in the affected row of houses uninhabitable. Five burned down, and the others were badly damaged. Residents of 16 other homes had to spend the night elsewhere while firefighters continued to extinguish the blaze. The other locals could return home once the fire was under control.
Utrecht fire
The Utrecht fire broke out in a waste container at around 4:30 a.m., according to RTV Utrecht. The smoke quickly traveled up the stairwell and into several apartments. Paramedics checked several residents at the scene for smoke inhalation. They took one person to a hospital for treatment.
The fire department quickly extinguished the waste container and ventilated the building. Most residents could return to their homes by around 6:00 a.m. The municipality arranged shelter for the rest.
