In a vacant monumental catering building on the Grote Markt in Bergen op Zoom, Brand raged on Saturday night. A branch of Hotel De Draak, next to the building, was therefore evacuated. And that was very exciting, says Hotelgast Michael. “But there was no panic.”
Around four o’clock in the morning the signal was given master. The fire started in the roof of the building where Pubby’s Sportsbar used to be located. The fire brigade managed to prevent transferring to adjacent buildings, including the hotel. The hotel had to be cleared in the middle of the night.
Michael experienced it all up close, because he stayed in the Dependance. Like many others guests, he was also brought up around half past one by a loud sound. “It was a fire alarm,” he explains. “We first thought it was an exercise, but then I heard someone scream:” Brand! Brand! ” Then of course you know enough. “
Michael quickly opened the room door and saw someone from the hotel. “He said we had to get out and that we were going to evacuate. Then you grab your most important things like your phone, and then we walked down.”
Michael waited on the square until the fire brigade had finished extinguishing. His things, just like those of many other guests, were brought to the main building of the hotel on the Grote Markt. They could also spend the rest of the night there.
“We have just been told that the building was released. We could just take our last things,” Michael explains. The situation is under control again, but it was a shock.
“It was all exciting.”
“You don’t come up with the idea: the tent will be on fire immediately. And when you hear that there is a fire, you do not immediately know if your building is on fire. There was no panic, but it was all exciting,” he concludes.
According to hotel manager Imad El Khalfioui, there was smoke in the outbuilding of the hotel. “We were fully occupied, so all sixteen hotel rooms were evacuated. That went very quietly. We were with four colleagues.”
It was also a shock for him. “I was in bed, so it is immediately switching. In terms of damage it has been limited on the inside, luckily. Inside there is only some water and smoke damage,” he says. “Fortunately, the fire was quickly under control.”
