The large hay fire in Schaijk causes a lot of odor nuisance. A gray fog moves from Schaijk towards Uden. That is why an NL Alert was sent around half past six with the advice to close windows and doors. “I thought my meter cupboard was on fire, it smelled so bad,” Irene says. But not everyone has received the alarm, Ton just has all the windows open.
The flames are no longer visible at Zeelandsedreef in Schaijk, but a lot of smoke is still released. To be able to extinguish the mountain of hay, the hay is gradually pulled apart and extinguished with a grab crane. And that probably causes a lot of smoke and odor nuisance all day long.
The smoke moves through the streets in Uden. “I woke up to the stench around 5 a.m. this morning,” Brigitte says as she walks her dogs. “At six o’clock and around six thirty we received two NL Alerts. Then I closed everything. Now I don’t think it smells anymore, this morning it was really bad here.”
“You get an alert, then what? What should we do then?”
Irene lives on the Moraine in Uden and was afraid of a fire in her house on Monday morning. “I woke up at six o’clock and thought my meter cupboard was on fire, because it has just been replaced. It smelled so bad in the house.” After the NL Alert, she immediately jumped into action. “My neighbors are both on vacation, so I immediately closed all the windows on them as well.”
Irene immediately called the fire brigade. “There is work going on around the house and I wanted to know if the workmen could come. Whether they can do their job safely.” But that was not so simple, says the woman. “You get an alert, then what? What should we do then? I think it’s really bad communication. It took 45 minutes to get someone on the phone.” She was told that despite the smoke, it is still possible to work safely outside.
“The whole house stinks now.”
Someone who didn’t get anything is Ton. All his windows are wide open as if nothing is wrong. “I do smell something, but that was last night,” the man begins. “I don’t have internet, I don’t have a mobile phone, so I don’t receive an NL Alert.” He wants to know what’s going on. “Oh, it’s a mountain of hay. Then it can’t hurt,” laughs Ton.
And Elly has not yet seen the NL Alert either. “Now that you mention it, I can smell something. I’ll see if I got it.” That turns out to be the case in the end, but her bedroom window remains open. In the meantime, her neighbor has closed everything completely, she does not even open the front door anymore. “The windows have been open all night, the whole house stinks now,” the woman shouts through a closed window. “It’s actually too late.”
“My wife even put a cloth in the ventilation.”
Tonny from Zeeland comes to have a look at the fire. “I live next to the fire station, they were already out for this fire at a quarter past ten on Sunday.” At that time, he and his wife were not yet affected by the fire.
Monday morning they were woken up by the NL Alert inside and they closed all windows and doors. “My wife even put a cloth in the ventilation. She thinks it smells really bad, but I think it’s not too bad”, laughs Tonny.
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