Two people may owe their lives to Arthur Hoyer. The former professional footballer of PSV, Willem II and FC Den Bosch, among others, has a chip shop on Cederstraat in Den Bosch. A fire broke out directly opposite on Sunday night. Hoyer managed to wake up the sleeping people by throwing bottles of soda against their bedroom window. The two were out of their house just before the flames erupted from the building.
“I was sitting in my living room and walked to my snack bar. I thought I saw fog outside, but it was smoke. Outside I saw people walking and taking animals out of the house. I asked if everyone was out of the building, but they didn’t know. Then I looked around and saw a car belonging to people who live upstairs. They were still sleeping,” says Arthur matter-of-factly after a short night’s sleep.
He quickly thought about a solution to wake up the sleeping couple, who were sleeping upstairs in the building. Arthur took bottles of soda from his shop. He threw it against the bedroom window. After a few minutes they woke up and were able to quickly escape the burning house.
“It shouldn’t have taken much longer.”
In the meantime, Helene, Arthur’s wife, had called 911. “I saw the residents coming out. A little later the flames came out of the door,” says Hélène. “It shouldn’t have lasted much longer, things would have ended very differently.”
The residents of the building were then welcomed on the terrace of the snack bar. Arthur turned on the heaters for them. “And I made coffee, that’s all you can do.”
“She was completely over the bucket.”
Several people lived in the building, Arthur says. “The people who live upstairs just moved in, they are very nice people.”
Downstairs are two apartments, one of which was empty. Arthur feels sorry for the owner. “It belongs to a young woman who bought it on February 1st. She came to see this morning and was completely over the bucket. Her apartment has a lot of soot and water damage.”
YOU MAY ALSO FIND THIS INTERESTING:
House destroyed by fire, residents were able to flee in time