fire

A large fire broke out in a vacant building on Eerste Helmersstraat in Amsterdam-West on Friday morning. As far as is known, no one was injured.

The fire department responded to the scene at around 4:30 a.m. on Friday morning, Het Parool reports. The strong wind blew sparks all over the street, causing a risk that the fire would spread to other buildings.

Firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading, but surrounding homes were evacuated as a precaution. A total of 60 residents are being sheltered elsewhere in the neighborhood.

A minor was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of setting a very large number of fires in the Gelderland village of Zuilichem over the past months, the police said in a statement. The girl was arrested in her home on Boogerd just before 10:00 p.m., according to Omroep Gelderland. 

Two boys, aged 6 and 9, were killed in a house fire in Strijbeek, Noord-Brabant, during the early hours of Sunday morning. Two adults were injured. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the police found no indication of a crime or negligence, a police spokesperson said to RTL Nieuws.

A fire at a care home in Amsterdam left one person "severely injured" on Tuesday afternoon. The resident was transported to an area hospital with burn wounds, authorities said.

Several other people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, authorities said. The blaze occurred in the Amsta facility on Van 't Hooflaan in the Watergraafsmeer neighborhood of Amsterdam Oost. The building is a specialized location for housing elderly people with dementia.

The fire department in Cadzand, Zeeland extinguished a strange fire in a vacation home on Sunday. The family had picked up some rocks while walking on the beach earlier that day and put them in the bottom of a pram. Back in their vacation home in Nieuwvliet-Bad, the rocks spontaneously caught fire. It turns out the rocks were covered in phosphorous, the fire department said on Facebook.

The Rijksrecherche, the department that handles internal investigations at government services like the police, is investigating the death of a 42-year-old man from Leeuwarden who died after the police intervened in a fight in a mental health institution on Wednesday, NOS reports.

The police responded to the GGZ clinic on Borniastraat in Leeuwarden on Wednesday evening. Patients were fighting with each other and a fire had broken out. Clinic staff called the police to help with a patient who was resisting their attempts to calm him down, according to the broadcaster.

A 16-year-old boy from Nieuwleusen was arrested for setting a fire in his home two weeks ago. His 22-year-old brother died in the fire. The teenager is suspected of arson, the police said in a statement.

The fire happened in the home on Zwartewaterland during the early hours of Sunday, July 14th. The parents managed to escape the flames, but their 22-year-old son died. The fire started in the attic, where his bedroom was, the local safety office said to NU.nl.

A 64-year-old man died in a fire at a sauna club in the German town of Hamminkeln on Sunday morning. Three men were arrested for hindering firefighters while they were extinguishing the fire. The victim came from the Netherlands, other visitors to the Gallardo Sauna Club said to NU.nl.

The sauna was completely destroyed in the fire. First responders tried to resuscitate the Dutch man, but it was to no avail. He died at the scene.

Two people were killed on Friday after an explosion blew out the facade of an apartment in Vlaardingen, police confirmed. The incident took place shortly after 9:10 a.m. on the Van der Waalstraat in the Zuid-Holland city about five kilometers west of Rotterdam.

The two victims were initially reported as injured in the blast, which then led to a fire. Neighbors said a family with children was living in the apartment where the explosion took place, according to local broadcaster RTV Rijnmond.

One person was killed in a fire at a care complex on Sietze Hepkemalaan in the Friesland village of Sint Nicolaasga during the early hours of Thursday morning. The fire has since been extinguished, NU.nl reports.

At around 1:00 a.m. firefighters had the fire under control and were working on extinguishing it. Evacuated residents could return to their homes after the building was examined. A few residents had to spend the night elsewhere in the complex due to fire damage.

Stormy weather caused a lot of problems in the eastern parts of the Netherlands on Sunday. Streets in multiple towns flooded and a lightning strike brought train traffic between Zwolle and Olst to a halt. Lightning strikes also caused a number of small fires, RTL Nieuws reports.

Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for the eastern half of the Netherlands on Sunday, warning of lightning strikes and large amounts of rainfall. Some places also faced large hailstones.