Four floors of Dordrecht apartment building uninhabitable after fire

A very large fire in an apartment building in Dordrecht overnight left the homes on four floors of the tower uninhabitable. No one got hurt, but five people were checked for smoke inhalation. There was also a fire in the building on Saturday evening, a spokesperson for the fire department told Rijnmond. Both fires started on the same floor, but the spokesperson couldn’t say whether they began in the same apartment.

Emergency services responded to the first reports of a fire in the apartment building on Maarten Harpertsz Trompweg at around 00:20 a.m. The fire started on the 11th floor and quickly spread to the floor above. The side of the building was also ablaze.

First responders evacuated many of the homes while the fire department set to work in large numbers. Firefighters had the fire under control at around 3:00 a.m. and extinguished it at around 6:20 a.m.

The around 150 evacuated residents were accommodated in the Van der Valk Hotel in Dordrecht, according to Rijnmond. At around 5:00 a.m., the residents of apartments on the eighth floor and lower could return to their homes. The homes on floors 9, 10, 11, and 12 were declared uninhabitable. The affected residents can stay in the recreation room of the building for the time being. Camp beds have been set up there, the broadcaster reported.

The apartment building is called the Short Stay Facility. It has 189 apartments, mainly for people staying on a short-term basis. Housing association Woonbron says on its website that the building has a “wonderful mix” of residents. “Business people, interns, divorcees, ex-addicts, the elderly, unmarried mothers, students, and homeless youth.”

Mayor Wouter Kolf responded to the fire on X. “Just informed about another big fire in the short stay facility on Maarten Harpertsz Trompweg where vulnerable people live,” he wrote. “My thoughts are with the innocent residents who had to experience this yesterday and before.”