There was a dose of irony in a massive fire at a firelighter factory in the Netherlands on Thursday morning, which caused an unsurprisingly devastating blaze.
It’s not clear how the fire broke out at the Fire Up factory, but city officials said that they chose to let the fire burn itself out. Only one wall of the building remained afterwards, and a huge plume of smoke was sent across the city of Oisterwijk, leading to fishing bans in nearby lakes. Thankfully, videos seemed to show that the firefighters were able to prevent the blaze spreading to the other nearby factory units.
No one was injured in the blaze.
Watch the fire in this video:
Download the Fire Safety in 2023 eBook, keeping you up to date with the biggest news and prosecution stories from around the industry. Chapters include important updates such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and an overview of the new British Standard for the digital management of fire safety information.
Plus, we explore the growing risks of lithium-ion battery fires and hear from experts in disability evacuation and social housing.
Nice one Rob-
Perhaps you could send this to Alanis Morissette as a proper example of irony as opposed to that idiotic godawful dirge she inflicted on the human race all those years ago!!
Perhaps that song should have gone:
It’s like rain when all you need is a fire hose.
I feel that there is a very high risk for these types of companies compared to others since they deal with that kind of items as their business core process.
@Robert Brown, thanks for sharing the video. Any particular reason why they chose to let the fire burn itself out conisdering the fact that fire could have easily spread to nearby factory units ?
One good thing is that no one was hurt. I would think that a factory producing things intended to burn very easily would be a bit more prepared to stop a fire before it spread but it does make you wonder where the fire started and why. Since the structure burned almost completely I have to assume that it included the area that they store their product and that makes me wonder if they have anything in place to segment the storage of materials and finished product since everything inside that building was probably great fuel for a fire.
Yeah you would think a firelighter manufacturer would have a better fire suppression system installed. Its a very good thing that no one was injured and hopefully the business is able to recover from this incident.
@ Rob
Ha-Ha!
Thanks for the video clip. It looks like that fire was burning very hot, perhaps that is why they decided to let it burn itself out?!
@ safeNsane
By the looks of the building, it didn’t appear to be very large. They probably just had a couple of really large warehouse style rooms where they stored materials and finished product, and probably worked too.
@ JonathonL
I agree, working with highly combustible material they would have fire prevention plans in place and barriers, etc. to contain fires if they did occur.
could not agree more, I’m glad to hear it too no one get hurt… but it bring a question of the fire safety protocols in place… also it remind me of the shoemaker with out shoes… on the other hands it would make sense to have some factories design as submarine’s – where if one parts get fire… rest of the building is safe and secure… as long as doors to the area with the fire get locked and anti-fire system get trigered/activated…
yes, it sad… but in some cases you have no choice as to left fire alone and only observe until it burn out… as fireman’s not a God’s…
I agree, but a lot of the times even with firesafety/security protocols in place a little details get overlooked… like let say safe storage… and in some cases you only need one spark… my boss use to say safety manuals/instructions/protocols to follow writen in blood…
@STACEY ESTEY, that’s what I suspected as well. It made me wonder if they had any types of fire barriers in the building since it burned so completely. I would think that when you’re making flammable products you might want to compartmentalize some areas for this exact reason.
StaceY I think this all episode is an example of miscalculations. I think every body wondered that the fire department is housing the fire professionals and it will not be possible to have fire in that and they were wrong.
I recall an incident where the house in our neighbours got blasted in flames and nothing could be done as fire grew up ata very fast pace the reason found out to be leakage in the Gas in the house. It got down in matter of time and fire department was jusrt a mere spectator. I just recalled.
@ batye
I agree, sometimes the only safe course of action would probably be to try to contain a fire and let it burn, depending on the circumstances.
@Alexander Stephens
It is always a good idea to follow safety instructions and protocols as closely as possible. There is always a chance that something could happen that has not been “prepared” for, so its also good to be ready to make decisions regarding safety as situations arise as well.
@ safeNsane
You would think that common sense would dictate the need for some type of protection.
Common sense seems to be less common than many of us suspect. I’d be very surprised if there was never a fire inspector that walked through that building. You would think that someone in that role would bring up the fact that they had so much combustible material spread around with not enough attention given to the dangers of that material and how it was stored.
@ safeNsane
I am thinking in the same way you are. And I wonder what kind of regulations they actually have and enforce in the Netherlands.