Christmas drama in Amstelveen: mother and daughters lost their house after a fire

The cause of the fire appears to have been a fatal accident, say several residents in the apartment complex. A candle fell over a couch just as the mother had left the house for a moment. Because the sofa was made of a highly flammable material, the fire was able to spread very quickly throughout the entire home. The two daughters were still at home at the time.

One of the daughters immediately alerted the neighbor who immediately came to help. “I ran inside and saw large flames coming around the corner towards the hall,” says the neighbor in his doorway. “There was so much smoke in the air, I could hardly see anything except the flames.”

Text continues under the photo

The neighbor a few doors down also feared for her home. “My son heard all kinds of screaming and went to check it out. He quickly came back and shouted that there was a fire and that we had to get out,” she remembers.

The lady and her son quickly alerted the other neighbors and ran outside with the birdcage full of birds. Everyone, including the birds, managed to leave the apartment unscathed. “Fortunately, the birds are now quiet again and are whistling again,” says the neighbor.

“It was a very strange feeling to run outside in my socks and leave everything behind,” says the neighbor. “I really thought my house was going to go up in flames too.”

Guilt

The neighbor says he feels very sorry for the mother and her teenage daughters. “The youngest feels very guilty because they were there when the candle fell over,” he says. “But they couldn’t do anything.”

Text continues under the photo

Besides the house in which the fire started and the house above it, no houses are uninhabitable. There is a lot of damage and there is still a thick smell of smoke in the apartment.

Some windows in the helping neighbor’s home were also broken and it stinks of smoke. “I did sleep there and it was manageable. I was given a fan to clean the air.”

As far as is known, the mother and her daughters have been placed with relatives. The upstairs neighbors are temporarily staying in a hotel.

Watch the report below to see how the situation developed last night. The helping neighbor did not want to tell his story on camera.