For the second time in two years, a fire broke out in restaurant Pancho’s Cantina in Zaandam. The damage is much less than in the fire in January 2020, when the restaurant completely burned out, but for owner Gré Kok last night was a traumatic deja vu. “You never think of this,” she says, shocked.
“Who goes through that twice?” Gré wonders. Last night a fire broke out in the freezer in the basement of the restaurant, a spokesperson for the Zaaanstreek-Waterland Safety Region confirmed to NH Nieuws.
Hans and Gré were called by the alarm company and later by the police. “It was immediately a re-experience,” says Gré, referring to the fire in January 2020 that reduced the restaurant on the Rozengracht to ashes.
Gray is devastated. After the fire on the Rozengracht, she went to therapy to process it, but the feeling of that time came back last night. “We immediately drove to the office and we saw a building full of smoke and I could only watch helplessly again. It is terrible.”
‘Cellar blackened’
The damage from this fire is smaller than that of the previous one, but even now a lot has to be repaired. “Everything is covered in soot, the wiring has burned out and the pipes of the sewage system have melted completely. The basement is completely blackened.”
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Fire in the basement at Pancho’s Cantina
Fire in the basement at Pancho’s Cantina
Fire in the basement at Pancho’s Cantina
After the fire on the Rozengracht, Hans and Gré decided to don’t sit down† On August 14, 2020 the restaurant opened its doors again at a new location on Dam Square. Gré was very happy and made a new beginning. “We went out to do odd jobs from early in the morning until late at night,” Gré said at the time.
As happy as she was then, she is so shocked now. “We are really devastated. We were completely booked for tonight.” Hans, Gré and the team always carefully closed the restaurant to ensure that a fire did not break out again. “It was perfect on the Rozengracht, but here it had to be perfect ten times.”
“It’s almost a kind of coercion, we check if all the lights are off and everything is closed properly”
“It’s almost a kind of coercion. We check to see if all the lights are off and everything is closed properly and when we’re almost done, someone else in the basement checks to see if the light is out.” Of course, the freezer and refrigerator cannot be turned off when the restaurant is closed. “We couldn’t have prevented it.”
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