Her house is covered in soot after last night’s fire. But Carla (57) was especially relieved on Monday morning because she made it out alive with her dog and two cats. “The rest is material damage, right.”
“I was at home and lying in bed when at one point I saw a glow of flames on the first floor,” Carla – who has only lived here since October 1 – reflects. “Then I ran outside with one of the cats and the dog. We found the other cat later.” She then spent the night with her sister.
The fire is said to have spread from a car in front of the house around a quarter to one at night. Immediate neighbors also woke up from the fire. “We were sleeping when my wife heard crackling outside,” says the neighbor.
“She thought: those must be fireworks. Until she saw sparks when she looked out the window. We got up very quickly and went outside with our son (9). I quickly removed my bus that was near that house. That bus is damaged anyway. The side has partly melted due to the heat.”
“Some local residents stood barefoot for hours, wearing only a bathrobe.”
Other local residents dragged each other out of bed in the middle of the night. “We have a neighborhood app and everyone was warning each other in it,” says Hanneke. “That’s how I went downstairs, with my dog. I quickly grabbed something to wear, then we had to go outside quickly.”
There she saw the fire raging at the corner house. “A fierce fire, as far as I could see. Fortunately, the fire brigade had everything under control quickly.”
Yet it took hours before she was allowed back into her house. “The fire brigade had to check everything first because of the smoke. It entered all the houses. We were not allowed back in until around three or half past four. Some local residents stood barefoot for hours, wearing only a bathrobe. Others still wore a coat over them, but that did not apply to everyone.”
“When I left on Sunday night, around three o’clock in the morning, everything in my house was still reasonably passable,” says Carla. “But this morning there was a fire again. They then had to board everything up for the second time. We still have to see what the exact damage is now.”
The entire facade of the house is blackened:
