-- It appeared
like a spectacular fireworks display had lit up the sunny afternoon and people streamed
towards the show. Unfortunately, a fireworks depot blew up, obliterating an entire
neighborhood and left over 20 people dead and more than 900 injured according to search
and rescue workers. Detonated were 100 tons of stored fireworks and arson is
suspected. The blast sent fireworks, concrete and glass shards in all directions.
According to witnesses, after the explosion a dark cloud covered the entire neighborhood
and victims could not be located until they walked out of the cloud. Some exited missing
limbs from the force of the explosion. Search and rescue crews worked feverishly with
canines to try to locate anyone that may have been alive, but to no avail.
-- The
Commission of Inquiry into the Firework Disaster, as it's officially known, faced a
difficult task. Much of the evidence literally went up in smoke following the enormous
explosion in the eastern Dutch town of Enschede. In its efforts to accurately reconstruct
all the events, the Commission interviewed more than 200 people. Use was also made of
video evidence made at the time of the explosion.
-- The national authorities, the local council and the fireworks company were
all at fault for the disaster at Enschede which cost the lives of 22 people. That's
the conclusion of the Oosting Commission, which published its final report following an
enquiry into the disaster.
-- A Turkish
married couple who lost their house in the fireworks disaster have unearthed the bride's
dowry which was buried in the garden. Although the couple's home was destroyed
by the blast, the dowry survived. Fourteen gold bracelets, one ring and
a gold chain had been hidden in a pipe in the garden. Only a few items had
melted in the heat of the explosion.
Enschede
Explosions in Netherlands kill 20
-- A blaze
inside a fireworks warehouse Saturday triggered multiple explosions that killed at least
20 people, wounded another 175 and sent balls of fire shooting over the center of this
eastern Dutch town, media reported.
A sea of black smoke plunged an entire neighborhood
into darkness as the fire raged for hours after the afternoon explosions. Helicopters and
ambulances ferried away the injured. A 625-square-yard area around the facility was
destroyed, and streets in the town of Enschede, 85 miles east of Amsterdam, were littered
with fragments of concrete and shards of window pane.
"This is truly a calamity," the town's
mayor, J. Mans, told RTL-5 television. He said 100 tons of fireworks exploded in the
blaze.
"Our information is that 20 people are dead,
but I fear that there will be more," he told the NOS public television channel.
"I'm afraid that there are more people buried
under the rubble," he said.
Nearly 2,000 people live in the neighborhood where
the warehouse is located, according to the mayor.
Mans initially told RTL-5 that 10 firefighters were
missing but later said on the NOS report that the exact figure was unknown.
NOS reporter Pauline Broekema said desperate family
members were searching for loved ones under the rubble.
"We heard a huge explosion, and then we
thought, `we're finished,' " an unidentified witness told channel RTL-4. "We had
no idea what was happening. All we knew is there was no place to escape."
Amateur video footage on RTL-4 television showed a
huge ball of fire rising over the roofs of row homes in a densely populated area. Sparks
shot skyward as more explosions followed.
"I was sitting in a cafe, and all of a sudden,
there was a huge explosion. Beer glasses shattered, window panes were blown out and people
were hit by slabs of concrete," an unidentified teen-ager said.
Interior Minister Klaas de Vries arrived on the
scene and said emergency services were being coordinated by the National Crisis Center in
The Hague.
"Everyone in the Netherlands feels compassion
for the people of Enschede," he said.
The neighborhood around the warehouse, called
Enschede North, resembled the aftermath of a heavy bombing raid. There were no signs of
life on the gray, ash-blanketed streets. Homes were reduced to blackened rubble and
surrounded by burnt-out hulks of cars and mangled bicycles.
The warehouse is several blocks north of the train
station, television reports said. The Dutch national railway said train service to the
city had been suspended.
Dutch television also reported that a part of a
Grolsch beer brewery was on fire. Winds were threatening to spread the fire to a large
supermarket.
A statement issued by the town said ambulance and
fire fighters from nearby Dutch cities, as well as Rheine across the border in Germany,
were helping move the wounded to hospitals. A local Dutch air force base was reportedly
being used to treat the injured.
No further details were given on the cause of the
blast, which followed a spell of unseasonably warm and exceptionally dry weather.
Temperatures here have been in the 80s.
The mayor said the warehouse was licensed for
fireworks storage but could not explain why it was situated so close to a residential
area.
Over a week ago, a devastating explosion at a fireworks depot
ripped through a residential district in the eastern Dutch town of Enschede, leaving 18
people dead. Many questions remain. An independent inquiry ordered to answer them is now
under way. What is clear though is that the impact of the blast has been felt well beyond
the borders of the sleepy provincial town of Enschede.