Resident in Hoogeveen warns his neighbors: ‘I suddenly smelled a burning smell’

Local residents flock together and discuss Wednesday’s events. They point to the roofs of three houses. On the street, tufts of reeds lie here and there, sometimes blackened. There is a burning smell.

Scratching post

Erik Stoffers drags a scratching post across the street. The thing is for his daughter and son-in-law’s kitten. They live in one of the thatched houses on the Antares that were damaged by fire on Wednesday.

“They were really lucky,” he says of the visible damage. “The stuff inside looks undamaged. But there is still a burning smell in the house, so they will sleep with us again in the coming nights.”

His son-in-law discovered the fire just after half past five. He was relaxing in the sun after work. “I suddenly smelled a burning smell,” says the resident. He saw fire near the roof of the corner house, two houses away. “I immediately went inside to warn the neighbors.”

Fire extinguisher

Those residents looked strange, because they themselves had not noticed anything yet. While waiting for the fire brigade, an attempt was made to fight the fire with a fire extinguisher, but that was not possible. The woman who lives in the intermediate house was not home during the fire.

Erik Stoffers also went to the scene of the disaster after sending a few fire photos from his daughter. “It looked like a small fire at first. Garden hose on and done, I thought. But when I came here I saw fire trucks and cherry pickers everywhere. Boy, that does impress. The fire brigade had their hands full fighting the fire.” And the after-extinguishing, because the firefighters were not able to recover until well into the night.

‘Water from the sockets’

Stoffers saw many thousands of liters of fire extinguishing water wash over the roof. “Then you have to fear for the situation inside the houses. I heard that at the first two houses, where the fire brigade also extinguished the house, the water was running out of the sockets.”

No one was injured in the fire. All pets were also brought to safety in time. The first two homes sustained the most damage and are temporarily uninhabitable. The cause of the fire is not yet known, nor is the extent of the total damage.

René Miedema, father of football star Vivianne, lives in the block on the other side of the street. He is on the board of the management association that pays, among other things, for the annual inspection and treatment (coating) of the roofs.

Fireworks

Since the houses were built in 2007, there has never been a calamity. ,,Yes, before the completion a semi-detached house burned down when miscreants threw fireworks into it during construction”, says Miedema. But according to him, these thatched houses cannot be compared to many farmhouses.

He points to the rooftops. ,,There are certainly two fire-resistant plates under the reeds, which are also screwed on very tightly. In the event of a fire, it will smolder first, the fire will not penetrate because no oxygen can reach it.”

The residents of the affected homes the day after resigned. After the shock and panic of Wednesday, followed by an often restless night, people are slowly becoming aware of the events.

Leakage?

“You sleep for a while and then you wake up with a fright,” says Stoffers’ daughter about the night before. “Like: what the fuck did Wednesday actually happen?!’ Their house is ‘basically’ habitable, but they have to take into account damage as a result of the soaked roof. “Any leakage could become visible in the coming weeks, we have been told.”

The municipality offered the residents shelter for the first night. The insurance companies arrange replacement housing for the period that the recovery will take. The residents must take into account that they will not be able to return to their homes until Christmas.

In front of one of the stricken houses, a rabbit hops through the intact hutch. The animal nibbles relaxed on a straw.