Alkmaar allowed Ukrainian refugees to live in flammable chalets for months

A fire-resistant partition wall will soon be placed between a number of chalets, the unsafe front door locks have been replaced and an extra fire extinguisher has recently been installed on the site. “Due to the emergency situation, the intermediate distance has not been properly looked at,” a Building and Supervision inspector now admits to NH News.

Twelve chalets were placed this summer on the Loodpolderweg, right next to the Flamingo’s ’64 football club – true since mid-September Ukrainian refugees reside. Alkmaarder Arjan Gelder, of the political movement Fair and Justice, has been concerned for some time about the fire safety of the temporary reception location for Ukrainians. According to the permit granted, the chalets are too close together, they have unsafe door locks and there are no fire extinguishers in ‘tactical places’.

After Gelder raised the alarm several times with the municipality, but, according to his own words, always received no response, he went to the media.

‘No intervention necessary’

At the end of November, NH Nieuws therefore visited the site on Loodpolderweg together with media partner Alkmaar Centraal. During the day our inspection proved Gelder’s claims to be correct. Some residents show that their front door can only be opened with a key and none of the residents spoken to can point to a fire extinguisher. But confronted with this, the municipality declared that intervention was not necessary.

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Four caravans are together seen by the municipality as a fire compartment. According to the building regulations, these chalets may be close to each other. There are also two fire extinguishers in the shared laundry room at the beginning of the site. In short: “Building inspectors have not seen any risks that require immediate follow-up.”

Fire compartment

But even if we add up four caravans, the fire compartments are not at a sufficient distance from each other either. According to the Building Decree, adjacent chalets are protected against spreading fire for at least thirty minutes with the mandatory spacing of 4.5 metres.

Moreover, the shared laundry room where the two fire extinguishers are located can only be called a ‘tactical place’ for the first few residents of the chalets.

The retort from the municipality of Alkmaar also raised eyebrows at Jan Hoekzema, councilor of OPA. He therefore asked questions for advice in order to obtain clarification.

New door locks

After we again presented the deficiencies of the site to the council of Alkmaar at the beginning of this week, we were finally offered to visit the location again, together with a Building and Supervision inspector.

During that visit we are pointed to a third, brand new fire extinguisher, at the last chalet on the property. It was not there during our previous visit. Also new are the cylinder locks on the doors. Previously, the front doors could only be turned from the inside with a key from the lock, but now the doors are equipped with a rotary knob.

We are also explained that the reception location is guarded from seven in the evening to seven in the morning. “The night guard walks around the site three times an hour,” explains the inspector.

The monkey came out of the sleeve from the joint visit: it is admitted that the chalets have been placed too close together in all haste.

Complicated job

But rearranging the caravans is a complicated job, according to the inspector. “We are now solving this as quickly as possible with two fire-resistant walls, which we place between the fire compartments. To move the whole thing now, we are not doing the Ukrainian residents any favors either. Those people have already been through enough.”