For more than 70 years he has been head and shoulders above the village. The Zandvoort water tower. The municipality wants to build homes in it and will present the first designs to the neighborhood tonight. There used to be offices in the lower tower and a restaurant at the very top, from where you had a beautiful view over the village. On May 5, 2001, a major fire broke out in that top. Zandvoort firefighters Rocco Termaat, Bas Koper and Fred van Limbeek fought the fire and look back one last time on that impressive event.
On Saturday evening, Zandvoort Fred van Limbeek received a message from his brother, who was an officer on duty at the fire brigade at the time. “We both lived next to the tower at the time. His pager rang, there was a fire in the tower. He immediately looked out the window, saw it burning and immediately alerted everyone.”
Fred also quickly walks outside. “I look up and think ‘shit, it’s really burning.’ It was one big red glow.” He runs to the barracks on the Duinstraat and leaves with the first car, which he then connects to one of the fire hydrants next to the tower.
Zandvoort Rob Bossink films how the flames hit the water tower on May 5, 2001 – image: Rob Bossink
“We are coming and it is just very strange what you see. It was unreal. A water tower that burns, it was one big red glow,” says Bas Koper. Moments later, he also arrives with his fire extinguisher. Support has also arrived from Heemstede.
The firefighters have to go up the stairs on the inside, because it is not possible to extinguish the fire from the outside. The fire is raging too high and there is simply no equipment available for that.
‘It was a lighthouse’
Firefighter and Zandvoorter Rocco Termaat also arrived on site. “It was no longer a water tower, it had become a lighthouse. At first you think ‘oh God, we have to go up and that is a lot of stairs’. But it turned out that a team had already entered. We then went for the houses around the tower.”
A combination of a burning wooden construction and a strong wind creates a shower of sparks above the Watertorenplein. “We also shouted to people that they should keep their roofs wet with garden hoses, because we couldn’t serve everything and everyone there. There are quite a few houses,” says Rocco.
The three describe the fire as ‘a nice fire’, a challenge to fight. On the other hand, they also see an icon in their village slowly burn down. A place where they themselves, even as children, have been countless times and have many memories.
“As a Zandvoorter you think for a moment, ‘Gosh, he may have to be demolished.’ The tower is an icon, a place where you meet each other. If you went to the restaurant, you didn’t go up the stairs, but with the elevator,” says Rocco. In May 2001 the restaurant has been out of use for some time.
Elevator motor is on fire
The Zandvoort firemen arrive at the restaurant via the stairs with their hoses. They open the door, expecting to find flames, but that turns out not to be the case. “That was very strange for them. You can see outside that everything is on fire and once upstairs nothing seems to be wrong,” says Bas. Finally, they find the fire’s source. Above the restaurant, the elevator motor turns out to be on fire.
They get the flames under control, luckily there were no casualties. “We also managed to keep everything downstairs. We have been busy for a while, I think I saw the sun rise during the extinguishing in the tower,” says Rocco.
Because of their performance, now almost 21 years later, they do not see themselves as the saviors of the water tower. “It’s not our fault, but the solid, strong construction of the tower that makes it still there today,” says Rocco.
“Of course you will never forget it, it was one of the ‘beautiful’ fires”, says Bas. Fred nods. “But for me it was not the most spectacular fire. That was still my very first fire, in a house on the Brederodestraat. I saved a cat there with Rocco’s father.”
Housing in the dilapidated tower
The three Zandvoort residents do not know exactly what caused the sea of flames in the water tower. The burnt top has been restored, but the tower has been out of use for years. For years, there has been talk within the municipality about a new destination for the building and that now seems to be housing construction.
Fred is happy that the tower is being revived. “I think it’s a shame that he is now running into impoverishment. Some would even rather tear it down, I disagree. It could just become a tourist attraction again, especially if there were another restaurant at the top.”
In August 2018, the Zandvoort water tower was temporarily occupied by a group of squatters. They then gave NH Nieuws a tour of the vacant building:
Visiting the squatters in the Zandvoort water tower – NH
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