1/4 Major fire at facade builder in Oirschot, part of the building goes up in flames
Paul Wijtman saw his office go up in flames, but a week later he is back up and running with his company. Yet the damage to the business premises is enormous. The entire office is gone and the production halls have also suffered damage. “We have to start again,” says the owner of WVH Gevelprojecten.
Nothing is left of the office at De Scheper in Oirschot. “The only thing left to see are the iron frames of some desks and some cups in a burned-out dishwasher. There is nothing else left,” says owner Paul Wijtman.
The facade builder’s office section is now located across the street from the burned building. “There happened to be an upper floor available, so we can now rent it for at least a year.” Everyone started working there again on Monday. Production will also restart on Monday morning as one of the three production halls is still intact.
“We really couldn’t do anything about it.”
The fire a week ago was caused by a short circuit. “The research has already shown that. There really wasn’t anything we could do about it. We are basically well insured, so I hope everything else will turn out fine.”
“The worst fear has now passed,” says Wijtman. “We’re just going to rebuild everything again. Fortunately, our customers are not affected by this. They won’t notice the fire.”
“I guess I’m not exactly a jerk.”
After the fire, Wijtman was flooded with reactions. “There are so many people who wanted to help us. Draftsmen who wanted to draw for us for free or colleagues who make their machines available. I don’t think I’m exactly a jerk,” he says with a laugh.
In any case, he received the best expression of support from his mother. “She came to the office this morning and gave all her colleagues chocolate with a card. It said: ‘Thank you for helping Paul out’.”
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