Volendam New Year's fire

The Volendam New Year's fire was a café fire in the Dutch town of Volendam during the 2000–2001 New Year's night. The fire began early on New Year's Day 2001 and caused the death of 14 young people.Reconstruction of the fire in "De Hemel" in Volendam, New Years Eve 2000/2001
, S. M. Öhlin Lostetter and P.B. Reijman, TNO Centre for Fire Research, The Netherlands &
P.H.E. van de Leur, DGMR Consulting Engineers, The Netherlands There were in all 241 people admitted to hospital,The Volendam Fire: Lessons Learned from Disaster Research
Sabine M. van Harten MD, Joost J.L.M. Bierens MD et al., Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, September–October 2006 p.304 200 of whom suffered serious burns.

Fire

The fire took place in a building that housed three bars. On New Year's Eve the cafés were packed with more than 350 young people between 13 and 22 years of age when a short blaze happened in the café ''De Hemel'' ("Heaven") which was located on the top floor1 januari 2001: Cafébrand Volendam
Zwaailichten disaster website after a sparkler hit Christmas decorations that hung from the ceiling.Blaze victims tell of fight for life
BBC News, 2 January 2001 The temperature in the room reached 400 °C (752 °F).

There was great panic and the heat, lack of oxygen and people falling over each other made escaping extremely difficult. There also were bars in front of the windows and there were too few emergency exits, all of which contributed to the high number of injuries. Survivors stated that shortly after the fire began all the lights went out contributing to the panic.

The first report reached the Amsterdam ambulance service CPA at 00:38 local time on 1 January. The first fire engine arrived at 00:46 CET. The Dutch Red Cross reported that the alarm was raised shortly after 00:30 local time and that it took 15 minutes for the first ambulances and medical teams to arrive. Mayor Frank IJsselmuiden claimed that the crowd had panicked because all but one of the emergency exits were blocked.

Victims

Initially only eight were reported dead after the fire and the majority of them were from Volendam and aged between 15 and 22. By January 18, four additional people had died in local hospitals raising the official death toll to 12.

Many of those injured were hurt when they smashed windows and leapt from third and second floor windows in an attempt to escape the fire. Others including 53 injured individuals were admitted due to burns with some being flown to special burn units in Belgium and Germany.

Investigation

The fire was investigated intensively by media and politicians. New rules were introduced for decorations in cafés, nightclubs and other venues.NVBR: Politiek wakker geschud na brand Volendam
Reformatorisch Dagblad, 22 November 2010 The owner and managers of the building were indicted for culpability.Verdict in Volendam Fire Disaster on 18 July
Dutch News Digest 7 March 2003 An inquiry showed the owner Jan Veerman had been negligent in providing escape routes as well as failing to inundate the Christmas decorations with a fire-resistant substance, and that there were too many people in the building at the time of the incident. The owner was convicted to a conditional prison sentence and community service.Werkstraf voor Jan Veerman
De Volkskrant, 18 July 2003 As a result of the inquiry Mayor of Edam-Volendam Frank IJsselmuiden and alderman Wim Visscher resigned their positions.Volendam in teken herdenking cafébrand
Het Parool, 1 January 2011

Aftermath

A memorial ceremony for the victims took place in January 2001, with then Prime Minister Wim Kok (later King) Willem-Alexander joining about 15,000 other mourners that marched through the town streets.

See also

* 2001 in the Netherlands

References

{{Club fires

Building and structure fires in the Netherlands
Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes
Nightclub fires started by pyrotechnics
2000 fires in Europe
2000 in the Netherlands
2001 in the Netherlands
Volendam
History of North Holland
New Year celebrations
January 2001 events in Europe
Commercial building fires
2000 disasters in the Netherlands
2001 disasters in the Netherlands