Nico just left a dog when he saw a steam cloud hanging, it turned out to be CO2

It is six o’clock in the morning when Dekkers is walking with his dog and sees a white steam cloud hanging at one of the companies on the Vliedberg in Vlijmen. Unsuspectingly he continues his walk. Half an hour later he finds that the white cloud is still in the same place. He decides to take a look and sees that the cloud comes from the Koninklijke Sanders perfume factory. “I thought: it should have been clean there for a long time. But I didn’t see a high pressure cleaner, there were no people and there was no service bus.” That was the moment when Dekkers knew something was wrong.

CO2 leakage
He is investigating and sees that the white smoke comes from the CO2 tank and he hears a sound. He quickly brings the dog home and he will inform the company. “I addressed someone from the company and he put everything in operation. I didn’t think it was necessary to call 112. It was not dangerous and the tank could not explode. It seemed more convenient to inform the company,” says Dekkers.

It is half past eight, a few hours later, when the first report arrives at the fire brigade. They immediately drop off the environment on arrival. As a precaution, a company and two homes are evacuated. A recreational lake in the area is also deposited.

Together with an installation company, the fire brigade makes a plan for removing the CO2 from the tank. In the meantime, they carry out measurements in the deposited area. At half past one, the safety region reported that the CO2 was removed. The area has not yet been released.