In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, Bert van der Burgt gets the fright of his life. At two minutes to two, his neighbor Hans calls: the workshop of his care farm in Oijen is on fire. Flames shoot meters high from the roof. Bert jumps into his car and gets there before the fire brigade arrives. “When I got here I was scared to death,” he says.
A few hours later, the owner and founder of the Burgthoeve care farm stands visibly relieved among the still smoking ruins of what was once the workshop. The fire brigade had the large fire under control relatively quickly. Partly thanks to neighbor Hans, who woke up to the smell of smoke. When he opened the curtains, he saw the flames coming out of the roof and he called Bert. In the meantime, his wife Ilse called the fire brigade.
“The disaster would have been unmanageable if we had slept through the night. Then a real disaster would have happened this morning,” says Bert. Visibly dazed, the owner says that the entire neighborhood immediately showed up to help. “Despite all the misery, it is very nice how that turned out.”
“When can we get back to work?”
Burgthoeve is a care farm where 25 residents live and work permanently under supervision. During the fire, the residents were evacuated, but they were able to return after a few hours. “The residents spent a number of hours with the neighbors. They were of course terribly shocked,” says Van der Burgt.
In addition to a care farm, Burgthoeve is also a horse dairy farm. The more than a hundred horses had to be brought to safety in the middle of the night. Not a single horse was injured, which is almost a miracle when you see the remains of the shed. On Thursday morning they were also able to return to their accommodations.
“It gives the power to say: don’t whine, keep going.”
That same Thursday morning everyone gathered in the canteen. Van der Burgt was impressed by the resilience of his people. “When you see how they support each other, it gives you the strength to say: don’t complain, keep going.”
That was also the first thing he heard from the residents: “When can we get back to work?” Van der Burgt is now busy with that. The care farm has another location where the residents can work for the time being. As soon as possible, Van der Burgt wants to start rebuilding the workshop as soon as possible.
Cause of fire
Nothing is yet known about the cause of the fire. The fire brigade is still investigating, including looking at the particles from the solar panels that ended up in the area. Van der Burgt has no idea. “I don’t understand it, because the power always goes off in the evening,” he says.
