Big fire in NL

We have a big fire in the Netherlands:

(CNN) -- A chemical factory in the Netherlands caught fire Wednesday, sparking concern about the possibility of toxic smoke, a volunteer firefighter said.

The factory is "completely on fire" in Moerdijk, a town of about 2,000 north of Antwerp, the firefighter said.

About 125 firefighters were battling the blaze, which started around 2:30 p.m., he said. No injuries have been reported.

Authorities have asked people to stay indoors amid concerns about the possibility of toxic smoke. Some of that smoke is drifting toward the nearby town of Dordrecht, which has about 20,000 residents, he said. Several thousand others live in nearby villages.

CNN

Rain at 9pm (GMT+1) could possible cause that the toxic gasses come to the ground.
The city where Moerdijk is in, is in the highest state of alert, 3 other city's are one level below that

Pictures:











More: http://www.nufoto.nl/onderwerpen/grote-brand-moerdijk/

Woah! :O

Have they gotten assistance from the airport fire brigade? The orange vehicle in the first picture looks like a airport engine, and the logo on it looks like KLM.

EDIT: Scratch that, it's the Royal Netherlands Airforce logo.

They have support from every FD in the city, and some more outside the city, the crashtender is indeed from the Dutch army. at the moment, more than 150 FF's are battling the blaze

Geez, that's huge :O Any idea how it started?

Not a clue, fire chiefs predict this goes on far into the night

Yeah I bet. Probably a lot of stuff there that can't be put out with water.

EDIT:
From dutchnew.nl

Firefighters and specialist army units are fighting to control a massive fire at a chemical storage plant in Moerdijk, south of Rotterdam, the Telegraaf reports.

Chemie-Pack is made up of a number of warehouses and tanks where chemicals are stored. Workers told the local television station some 400,000 of dangerous, cancer-inducing chemicals are stored at the site, but the exact substance has not yet been officially identified.

People upwind of the fire are being told to stay indoors and keep doors and windows shut.

The justice ministry has declared a stage 4 alarm – the highest possible – and a national coordination centre has been set up.

UPDATE (from Twitter):

Fire has spread to another (storage) facility, contents unknown

------

Alarms:

City of Zuid Holland (Moerdijk): Stage 4
City of Rotterdam : Stage 2
City of Brabant : Stage 3

dutchnews.nl:
According to the Telegraaf, the nearby motor engine trading firm Wärtsilä has also gone up in flames. Seven other nearby companies have been evacuated.

This is another facility. Wärtsilä is an fuel process factory. (And in my opinion, the Telegraaf isnt a very reliable newspaper, they have caused panic already for publishing a non verified article)

Ah Probably why they felt the need to specify that it was from the Telegraaf. Still, nasty stuff. Doesn't companies like that have on site fire crews? Workers trained in fire fighting and firefighting gear?

They do, but fire spread to quicky and they were forced to retreat to a safe distance and request backup

Damn, must be some blaze then, I assume they were pretty well trained and equipped since this is a chem company.

And a 4 Alarm! I just hope that cloud doesn't do any damage :/

They have the same training as regular FF's + HazMat Specialty I believe. It's raining now, so the cloud is coming down, people are advised to wash there shoes if they went outside. The chem's are classified as; Toxic, Biting and dangerous.

By biting you mean corrosive? As in it burns skin etc.

Yes, didnt no how to translate it correctly

Holy crap, toxic acid rain O_O

That's what the Telegraaf said, causing big ass panic, this is not confirmed

UPDATE:

Fire has gotten bigger, journalists are kept back even more.

more pic's http://www.nufoto.nl/onderwerpen/grote-brand-moerdijk/

Damn! They need the FDNY haha. That does look horrible though. It's not going out until later though sadly. Do you live nearby Florian?

Why would they need the FDNY?

Nah, I live far away, but the wind is turning my direction, I live in the middle of NL. I hope the clouds don't come here

Me too.....stay safe dude. Wait, what would the factiry need with cancer inducing chemicals anyway? I don't really get that.

They aren't chemicals meant to cause cancer, they have other uses but may cause cancer in people who inhale the smoke. Just like asbestos is meant to insulate, but breathing the dust might cause cancer.

Ohhh....I understand now. Thanks Michael.

Norwegian news are now reporting that there isn't any risk to the local populous. Guess it was just the Telegraaf.

That's a hell of a fire. I'm happy I'm not coordinating that incident from COPA!

M. Kaizer wrote:Norwegian news are now reporting that there isn't any risk to the local populous. Guess it was just the Telegraaf.

Sounds like Telegraaf makes stories like papparazzi haha.

M. Kaizer wrote:Norwegian news are now reporting that there isn't any risk to the local populous. Guess it was just the Telegraaf.

I dont know if that would be true or not, if you get a cloud of smoke to settle in a town, with or without toxic fumes, it can still be a huge health risk.

(CNN)
The fire department decided to fight the fire with foam instead of water, which will cause heavier smoke, she said, so people were urged to remain inside and close all doors and windows.
"The fire department is still doing tests on the smoke coming from the fire but it doesn't appear to be dangerous for people," she said. "It may still give you irritation in your eyes and throat."

That's the biggest fire I've ever seen! They had something like that many years ago in like Dallas TX or something and they called in this private firefighting company that has this pump with like 15 foam lines and they put out the fire in like a half hour. Still, does that factory have adequate fire protection systems?

I would think a factory like this would, but maybe not enough suppression fluid/substance, or it failed to activate, or just couldn't keep it under control.

Yeah, I'm sure. My dad is a firefighter at a refinary, but it's just oil and gas. Nothing a little foam can't handle. Nothing like this. What are they using? Foam and water right?

M. Kaizer wrote:Why would they need the FDNY?

It's because they've so many people to spare. You ever seen how many rigs they send to a first or second alarm? (definitely a second alarm!) They would be of great help haha.

Fire is was under control at 12:30 am, there still battling the remaining fires now (1:30 pm). There is no more danger from the cloud, the cause of the fire is still unknown and the Board of Security is starting an investigation.
2 highways were closed down as well as train and boat traffic. The fire was first being attacked with water and now foam.

Movie: (Dutch) http://www.zie.nl/video/algemeen/Chemische-brand-na-uren-bedwongen/m1fzuojf0ibs

Oh wow. Great job on there part but the fire was under control at 12:30 AM and they're still battling at 1:30 PM? Just makin' sure,

Well the huge advantage with the volunteer firefighter system they have in the Netherlands and Germany is that in cases like this you can bring a lot of assets to the scene pretty quickly. A professional, as in people with firefighting as their main profession, unit would get to the scene quicker but with less assets. Like Florian said there were 150 firefighters on scene, I assume with those numbers they had enough gear to go around as well.

Fire under control or Brandmeester in Dutch is given when the fire no longer spreads and/or the fire can be handeld with the units on scene.

And it's a good system, it works really good.

UPDATE:

Fire is expected to be out at 10:00 pm (its now 8:00 pm)
Residents of Moerdijk still smell an weird odour from the fire, but authorities have said that there a no dangerous chemicals in the air. Some residents don't believe this because of the odour.

CNN news: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/01/05/netherlands.fire/index.html?hpt=T2

Wow its past 8 PM down there now?! Time for you to go to sleep haha. It's good that its almost done. So in the next hour, the fire should be out.

In under 15 minutes actually It's 9:47 PM now

At the moment the fire is out, but on twitter there a rumours of a new fire at a Shell facility

EDIT: Rumours are false, fire is out, the situation about the toxic substance's is unclear

Dang fire everywhere! You finish one then another comes up. That's tough!

See the edit.

Some numbers

2 FD Compagnies
4 FD Platoons
250 FF's

Wow, good that the fire's out! That took awhile...

250 FFs :O Holy crap, that's a lot of people. Probably needed every man though, I doubt anyone could stand battling that blaze for very long.

I read the message and I was like O__o thinking that 2 compagnies where 4 platoons, just, really much Firefighters

Hehehe. I've seen a few videos, albeit from Germany but still, of volunteer firefighters responding to calls. They respond in pretty large numbers even to smaller calls, and you have 90% of them standing around with nothing to do. But when you get real big things like this, you see the value of the system.

Dispatching in Germany is a bit different, to a small fire call they dispatch a Loschzug (ELW,HLF,DLK,TLF) and here we dispatch one TS (similair to a HLF) and they call in more units as they need them

i personely love the canadien system