The 16-year-old Rico Tjadiwangsa can still hardly believe it. He lived with his family in one of the four houses in Deurne where a huge fire raged on Monday. “Everything is gone. When I look at our house, I hardly realize what I see in front of me.”
The fire broke out around a quarter past one at a corner house on the Maassingel. At that time there was no one in the house. The fire was accompanied by thick clouds of smoke. There were no injuries, but the corner house and three other houses were declared uninhabitable. Rico’s house is also uninhabitable. The housing corporation is looking for new living spaces for the residents, because the four houses must be rebuilt.
“They are still in shock.”
It is quiet in the neighborhood on Tuesday morning. Berg opens, the housing corporation, conducts conversations with the people in the street. The residential block where the fire raged was closed off and is protected by a guard. In the three houses to which the fire spread, the police investigate around eleven o’clock.
16-year-old Rico Tjadiwangsa lived with his parents and his sister in one of those three houses. He himself was not at home when the fire broke out. “Not my mother either, but my sister and father did. My father was sleeping and had to be pulled out of bed by my sister. They are still in shock,” he explains.
Rico went home immediately when he was called about the fire. He was in Deurne and already saw the cloud of smoke in the distance. “That was very difficult. Afterwards I just stood with my family, opposite the playground on the other hand,” he explains as he stands in front of his deposited house.
“And then it was waiting. It is just terrible. I think it is a very strange idea. It cannot be comprehensible for me. Tonight we were taken care of by the municipality in a hotel in Deurne. But how further now is difficult to say. We have to arrange that today.”
“The day before yesterday I still had a house, now I have nothing left.”
An investigation must later show the cause of the fire. That is not important for Rico at the moment. “We are now homeless,” Rico sighs. “That is a very strange thought. The day before yesterday I still had a house, now I have nothing left.”
Anton Willems (56) also lives in one of the affected houses. “Together with a composite family of six people. I don’t have anything anymore. I have to go to the clothing bank, because I only have what I wear,” he says to his clothing.
Anton also slept in a hotel last night, but in Gemert. “This seizes me to see this. I don’t know what to say about it. This is very intense.”
The mayor of Deurne spoke on Monday of a ‘intrieste day’ for Rico and the other residents of the four houses. “Their stories make a big impression,” wrote Greet Buter on Facebook. According to her, there is compassion for the affectors in the district, “which is beautiful to experience despite everything.”
View images of the fire here:
