An apartment complex in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, where young people and status holders live, partly collapsed on Sunday after a large fire raged there. No one was injured, but a number of residents are unable to return home. Later in the day, the police announced that a 27 year old resident of the residential complex has been arrested. The police suspect the man to have started the fire deliberately.
Three to four hundred local residents were evacuated early Sunday morning during the fire. According to local news broadcasters Many people were still sleeping at the time. The block where the fire started contains 75 container homes, of which an unknown number collapsed shortly afterwards. A spokesperson for the municipality informed the ANP news agency that a long-term shelter is being sought. The young people and asylum seekers with residence status who have become displaced can temporarily stay in a sports hall in Amsterdam South.
The Amsterdam student union ASVA raised the safety of the same residential complex at the beginning of this year, after a storm had blown the roof off a building. The fact that it may be arson “makes the feeling of insecurity for these residents even greater,” the union tells NOS. There is no word yet on a possible motive for the arson.