October 6, 2025 • 20 mins
On May 13, 2000, the Dutch city of Enschede was struck by disaster when the SE Fireworks storage site exploded. The blast killed 23 people, injured nearly 1,000 others, and destroyed an entire neighborhood within seconds. Known as the Vuurwerkramp, or Fireworks Disaster, it remains one of the deadliest tragedies in modern Dutch history. In this episode of The Lowest Crime, we take you back to that day, tracing how the fire started, how the explosions unfolded, and how survivors experienced the chaos. We also explore the investigation, lawsuits, and political fallout that followed, and why questions about responsibility and accountability continue to linger more than two decades later. This is the story of a catastrophe that reshaped Dutch safety regulations and left an indelible mark on Enschede and the Netherlands as a whole.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hi and welcome to The Lowest Crime, the podcast that
discusses the most harrowing andcomplex criminal cases from the
Netherlands. I'm Alina, and today we turn
back to one of the darkest days in Dutch history, the Enschede
firework disaster of May 13th inthe year 2000, a tragedy that
(00:21):
killed 23 people, injured nearly1000 more, and destroyed an
entire neighborhood in seconds. Before we get into today's
episode, police know that we'll be describing explosions,
injuries, and the aftermath of amajor disaster, which some
listeners may find distressing. So please listen with care.
(00:42):
We begin this story not in the heart of the devastation, but
just outside of it, with someonewho by the smallest twist of
fate, escaped with her life. Saturday, May 13th, 2000 began
like so many others, for Carmen's Humacher.
Because her parents were divorced, she and her younger
(01:02):
brother spent the weekend with their father in Enschede.
The spring weather was beautiful, the sun was shining,
and the day felt ordinary, even pleasant.
In the afternoon, the three of them were on their way back from
a visit, driving toward Hangelowfor Carmen's riding lesson at
the riding school in Croatrina. As they entered the loss on
their single, the atmosphere changed abruptly.
(01:26):
Near the Tulenstrat, traffic suddenly came to a complete
standstill. Every car ahead was stopped.
In the distance, Carmen could see a thick, dark column of
smoke rising high into the sky, hanging heavy and unmoving.
Above the city. People began getting out of
their cars, staring toward the smoke.
(01:46):
There was a sense of unease. No one knew exactly what was
going on. Her father, visibly concerned,
stepped out to get a better lookand told the children to stay
inside the car. The minutes passed.
Slowly, Carmen's anxiety grew. It was not just the uncertainty
outside, but she was also concerned that she was going to
be late for her horse riding lesson.
(02:07):
Eventually, she couldn't take itany longer.
She got out and begged her father.
Could they please keep driving? He listened.
He quickly turned the car off the road and drove across the
grass to find another way through the city, away from the
column of smoke and toward Hangalo. 5 minutes later, they
pulled up at the riding school. They had just gone out of the
(02:28):
car when it happened. A deafening, all consuming blast
ripped through the air. The sound of a huge explosion
rolled over them, impossibly loud, like Thunder, magnified
100 times. The force of the blast was so
intense that the large mirrors along the walls of the riding
hall shattered one after another, glass exploding outward
(02:50):
and falling in shards on the ground.
The building shook violently, the horses startled and people
screamed in shock. But Carmen and her brother and
father were safe. Had they stayed where they were
on the road, this might have been a very different story.
They had left Enschede only minutes before the disaster
struck. Later they would learn that this
(03:11):
was just the start of what wouldbecome known as the Enstreet
Fireworks Disaster, a tragedy that would kill 23 people,
injure hundreds more and would completely destroy the
neighborhood of Rohmbek. On that sunny Saturday in May,
14 year old Rael was spending the afternoon with his older
brother and friends. They had been hanging out in the
(03:33):
top floor restaurant of the Viende department store in
Enstreet, a place where you could see the whole city.
As they looked out over the rooftops, they noticed a thin
plume of smoke rising in the distance.
Curious, they decided to head over and see what had happened.
By the time they arrived near the source of the smoke, a
growing crowd of around 200 onlookers had gathered, many of
(03:55):
them familiar faces from school.The fire was coming from the
storage facility, but the boys didn't know exactly what was
burning. We were young, he recalled years
later. It was just a fire.
We thought it might be interesting to watch, his
brother even joked. Who knows, maybe something
exciting will happen. But something came sooner than
(04:16):
expected. Fireworks began erupting from
the site, hissing and whistling into the surrounding streets.
People started to panic and run.Kyle dropped to the ground under
a small overhang, curling up with his back to the fire.
He waited for a lull, planning to Sprint to safety when things
calmed down. When it seemed quieter, he got
(04:37):
to his feet and managed only three or four steps before it
happened. A massive second explosion.
It was like a blanket of air. Picked me up, He said.
The blast flung him about 10 meters through the air before he
hit the ground hard on his stomach.
His ears were ringing, but he got up and saw blood soaking
(04:57):
through his light colored clothes.
He staggered into a nearby houseand collapsed against the
staircase, watching a pool of blood grow beneath him.
A firefighter appeared in the doorway and urgently radioed.
There's a boy here. He's dying.
We need an ambulance now. The words hit the young boy
hard. Kyle's mind went immediately to
(05:19):
his mother, who was terminally ill with cancer.
I wasn't crying because I thought I was dying, he
explained. I cried because I didn't want my
mother to have to go through losing me before she died
herself. He was rushed to the hospital in
critical condition. A block of concrete about the
size of a fist had struck his right side at an estimated 600
(05:40):
kilometers an hour, breaking ribs and tearing through his
abdomen before exiting on the other side.
His internal organs were badly damaged, but after multiple
surgeries he survived, left withextensive scarring but no
lasting physical impairments. What he had been caught in was
one of the worst disasters in the Netherlands since the Second
(06:00):
World War. It had been 3:25 PM when the
first massive explosion tore through the SE Fireworks storage
facility in the Dolastrat. When the fire reached one of the
main storage bunkers, the first huge blast ripped the side
apart, sending a shockwave outward.
The shattered windows tore roof tiles loose and collapsed
(06:21):
building fronts. The truth is, no one has ever
been able to say with certainty how the first fire at SE
Fireworks began. The explosions were so violent,
so all consuming, that they erased almost every trace of
physical evidence. Investigators worked with two
main possibilities. One was human action, an
(06:43):
accident, perhaps through carelessness or negligent
handling of fireworks, or something intentional like
arson. The other possible 'cause was
technical self ignition of firework materials or an
electrical short circuit. Whatever the spark, the fire
should have never been able to grow into what followed.
But at SE Fireworks the conditions for disaster were
(07:06):
already in place. The company's permit allowed no
more than 500 kilos of unpackaged fireworks.
In the workshop on Saturday, May13th, no work was taking place.
Yet in the same space there were900 kilos, almost double the
legal limit. When the stockpile caught fire,
(07:27):
it sent fireworks shooting in every direction, starting small
fires around the site. One of those fires spread into
an adjoining storage room through a flaw that should have
never existed. A7 centimetre hole in a
supposedly fireproof wall cut tomake way for a sprinkler pipe.
Through that opening. Flames had a clear path from one
(07:50):
part of the building to the next.
Outside, another small fire was smoldering in a cramped
triangular space between containers, a spot cluttered
with debris, including an old trailer.
One of those containers in the triangle E 2 was stacked with
heavy professional fireworks right up against the thin metal
(08:12):
walls. Those walls were only rated to
withstand heat for 4 minutes. When E2 finally went, that blast
unleashed the chain reaction that would destroy the entire
neighborhood. 42 seconds later, a nearby Marvel box called M7
exploded, taking several others with it.
(08:33):
Just over a minute after that, more containers went up, and
then the rest of the facility followed in one massive
detonation. And here's the most damning
fact. SE Fireworks was only licensed
to store the safest kind of fireworks, category 1.4.
On paper, almost everything on site carried that label, but in
(08:57):
reality, only 9% actually met that standard.
The rest, roughly 160 tons, was much more dangerous.
Class 1.31, point 2, and even 1.1.
That last category is the most dangerous of all mass explosive
(09:17):
fireworks that can go off in a single devastating blast.
Some of the 1.1 fireworks were kept together with 1.3
fireworks, and in a fire, that combination could react the same
as a full stock of 1.1, exploding all at once with
maximum force. The result?
(09:37):
The explosive power present in the residential neighborhood was
many times higher than what the law allowed.
And it wasn't just the type or quantity of fireworks that was
the problem. The site itself was a catalog of
safety violations. Poor fire separation, illegal
containers, cluttered spaces where fire could spread
(09:58):
unnoticed. The official report didn't stop
with blaming SE Fireworks. Oversight from authorities had
been LAX. Inspections were infrequent,
focused mainly on consumer fireworks, and barely
documented. Time and again, the company was
allowed to expand or change its setup without proper checks.
(10:19):
In the end, this wasn't just onebad day.
It was years of dangerous practice, ignored warnings and
inadequate oversight, all waiting for that one spark to
turn the home bake into an inferno.
When the fire reached one of those main storage bunkers, the
first huge blast ripped the siteapart, sending a shockwave
(10:40):
outward that shattered windows, tore roof tiles loose and
collapsed building fronts. Just 40 seconds later came the
2nd and largest explosion, the one that threw hail in the air.
Its force was equivalent to 800 to 900 kilograms of TNT and was
heard more than 100 kilometers away in Leilistadt.
(11:04):
The shockwave obliterated everything.
Nearby. Rows of houses collapsed into
burning rubble. Fires erupted across the
neighborhood as gas lines ruptured.
Vehicles were tossed like toys. The air became a choking mix of
dust, smoke and the stench of burning chemicals, accompanied
by the relentless banks of fireworks still exploding in the
(11:25):
wreckage. The destruction reached far
beyond Rome, Bake across ends today.
Windows shattered, shop fronts cracked and alarms wailed.
By day's end, 23 people were dead, including four
firefighters killed while tryingto control the initial blaze.
Nearly 1000 others were injured.For the survivors, the sights,
(11:48):
sounds and sensations of that afternoon would never fade.
A day when a column of smoke turned in seconds into a
disaster of historic proportions.
In the moments after the 2 main explosions, Ensde was in shock.
The scene in Romebek resembled awar zone.
Streets were filled with debris.Fragments of bricks, wood and
(12:11):
glass littered the ground. Thick black smoke blocked out
the sun, turning the bright May afternoon into an eerie
twilight. The silence that followed each
explosion was quickly replaced by the sounds of screaming,
crying and sirens converging from all directions.
Many survivors would later say at first they didn't understand
(12:34):
what had happened. Some thought it was a plane
crash. Others believed that the Halls
Brewery, located nearby had exploded.
Some compare the shockwave to anearthquake.
One of those who rushed toward the disaster instead of away
from it was Marco von Zoltan, a police officer who had been
coaching his son's football match when the first explosion
occurred. From the field, he could see the
(12:55):
massive column of smoke rising. He called the control room, but
even their information was scarce.
He cycled home, put on his uniform, and within hours was
working inside the disaster area.
What he found was chaos. A neighborhood reduced to
rubble, personal belongings scattered on the streets, a
coffee cup still sitting in a garden, a child's bicycle laying
(13:18):
in the middle of the road and the unshakeable silence of homes
that moments before had been full of life.
The fires were relentless. Gas lines had been ruptured by
the blast, feeding flames that consumed house after house.
Fire crews from across the Netherlands and Germany poured
into Entre De to assist, but even they faced enormous risk
(13:41):
not knowing if more explosions were coming.
For hours, secondary blasts fromfireworks continue to erupt in
the ruins, forcing rescuers to retreat and reapproach.
Again and again, medical personnel worked under extreme
pressure. Hospitals in Ensley quickly
reached capacity. Many victims were sent to
neighboring cities such as Hangelow to free up space.
(14:03):
In the most critical cases, the human toll was immediate and
devastating. 23 lives were lost,including four firefighters who
had been battling the fire when the first explosion hit.
Hundreds of others suffered burns, fractures and deep cuts
from flying debris. In total, almost 1000 people
(14:23):
were injured and for 1000 more their homes were gone.
The explosions had destroyed 400homes outright and damaged
around 1500 more. Approximately 12150 people were
left homeless in an instant. In the hours after the disaster,
emergency services sealed off the area.
(14:44):
Soldiers were deployed to assistwith securing the site and to
prevent loiting. For many residents, there was no
going back that night. Even those whose homes were
still standing were ordered to stay away, unsure if the
buildings were structurally safe.
In the days after the disaster, the blackened ruins of Lombek
became both a crime scene and a symbol of national grief.
(15:07):
The immediate priority had been to rescue and recover, but soon
attention turned to the questions everyone was asking.
How could this happen and who was responsible?
And it wasn't long before all the preventable mistakes came to
light. The disaster led to one of the
most high profile trials in Dutch modern history.
(15:28):
In 2003, the RNM Court of Appealconvicted SE firework directors
Rudi Baker and Villi Pater of causing the explosions through
negligence along with multiple safety and environmental
violations, and sentenced them to one year in prison.
The punishment many considered shockingly light given the scale
of the destruction. 23 lives lost, nearly 1000 injured and an
(15:52):
entire neighborhood destroyed. The verdict sparked public
outrage. Families of victims, survivors
and local residents felt justicehad not been served.
But these weren't the only charges brought.
In 2002, a man named Andre De Fries was convicted of arson and
sentenced to 15 years in prison.He spent about 2 1/2 years in
(16:16):
custody before the Arnhem Court of Appeal overturned the
conviction in 2003, acquitting him due to lack of evidence.
According to former detectives, the evidence against the fleece
had been tampered with. He later received €125,000 in
compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.
In the years that followed, whistleblowers and independent
(16:38):
researchers, including former MEP Paul von Bautenen and ex
detective Jan Baumann, alleged that the government's own
failures had been downplayed or concealed.
On October 28th, 2019, from Bauten and others filed a formal
criminal complaint against both local and national authorities,
accusing them of negligence and a cover up in the handling of
(17:01):
the SE firework permits and the investigation.
The case remains one of the clearest examples in the
Netherlands of how disaster can arise not only from an immediate
accident, but from years of systemic oversight failures when
the last fires were finally extinguished.
And so they faced a landscape that no one could have imagined
(17:22):
just days before, the Romeg district was gone.
Not damaged, not partially destroyed, but erased from the
map. Where there had once been
streets, gardens, playgrounds and homes, there was now only
blackened earth, mangled steel and piles of brick and ash.
In the weeks following the disaster, nearly 1500 people
(17:44):
were left homeless. Many were relocated to temporary
housing, often far from their old neighborhoods.
Families were scattered, and forsome the loss was not only
material but deeply personal. Parents without children,
children without parents or friends without friends.
Survivors spoke of years of nightmares, sudden panic at loud
(18:06):
noises and a deep mistrust of official reassurances.
Residents living within the blast zone continued to
experience physical health problems from the smoke, dust,
and asbestos released into the air that day.
The physical rebuilding of Rome began only after the painful
process of demolition and clearing.
(18:26):
Every structure within the core blast zone had to be removed,
and the soil was cleaned of asbestos and other contaminants.
When the reconstruction finally began, city planners made the
deliberate choice to redesign and make it a modern, open
district with wide streets and public spaces, a stark contrast
to the tight residential blocks that had stood there before.
(18:49):
Today, Rome Bake is known for it's contemporary architecture,
art galleries and cultural spaces, but it's past is never
far away. At the heart of the district
stands the Monument for the Vu, a memorial bearing the names of
the 23 people who lost their lives on May 13th, 2000.
Every year, on the anniversary of the disaster, residents and
(19:11):
survivors gather there to lay flowers and observe a moment of
silence. Even 25 years later, the
disaster shadow remains. For those who lived through it.
The sound of fireworks, the smell of smoke or even a sudden
loud bang can bring them right back to that sunny Saturday
afternoon when everything changed.
The End for Day Firework disaster is remembered not only
(19:34):
as one of the deadliest peacetime tragedies in Dutch
history, but also as a hard learnt lesson in urban planning,
industrial safety and governmental accountability.
It is a chapter that the Netherlands has vouched never to
repeat. And that is it for today.
Thank you all so much for listening.
If you found this an interestingepisode, feel free to subscribe
(19:57):
or leave a comment. I'd love to hear if you already
knew about this disaster. You can find any images related
to the case on the lowest crime Instagram account.
Thank you all so much for listening and I look forward to
seeing you in the next one.
Hi and welcome to The Lowest Crime, the podcast that
discusses the most harrowing andcomplex criminal cases from the
Netherlands. I'm Alina, and today we turn
back to one of the darkest days in Dutch history, the Enschede
firework disaster of May 13th inthe year 2000, a tragedy that
(00:21):
killed 23 people, injured nearly1000 more, and destroyed an
entire neighborhood in seconds. Before we get into today's
episode, police know that we'll be describing explosions,
injuries, and the aftermath of amajor disaster, which some
listeners may find distressing. So please listen with care.
(00:42):
We begin this story not in the heart of the devastation, but
just outside of it, with someonewho by the smallest twist of
fate, escaped with her life. Saturday, May 13th, 2000 began
like so many others, for Carmen's Humacher.
Because her parents were divorced, she and her younger
(01:02):
brother spent the weekend with their father in Enschede.
The spring weather was beautiful, the sun was shining,
and the day felt ordinary, even pleasant.
In the afternoon, the three of them were on their way back from
a visit, driving toward Hangelowfor Carmen's riding lesson at
the riding school in Croatrina. As they entered the loss on
their single, the atmosphere changed abruptly.
(01:26):
Near the Tulenstrat, traffic suddenly came to a complete
standstill. Every car ahead was stopped.
In the distance, Carmen could see a thick, dark column of
smoke rising high into the sky, hanging heavy and unmoving.
Above the city. People began getting out of
their cars, staring toward the smoke.
(01:46):
There was a sense of unease. No one knew exactly what was
going on. Her father, visibly concerned,
stepped out to get a better lookand told the children to stay
inside the car. The minutes passed.
Slowly, Carmen's anxiety grew. It was not just the uncertainty
outside, but she was also concerned that she was going to
be late for her horse riding lesson.
(02:07):
Eventually, she couldn't take itany longer.
She got out and begged her father.
Could they please keep driving? He listened.
He quickly turned the car off the road and drove across the
grass to find another way through the city, away from the
column of smoke and toward Hangalo. 5 minutes later, they
pulled up at the riding school. They had just gone out of the
(02:28):
car when it happened. A deafening, all consuming blast
ripped through the air. The sound of a huge explosion
rolled over them, impossibly loud, like Thunder, magnified
100 times. The force of the blast was so
intense that the large mirrors along the walls of the riding
hall shattered one after another, glass exploding outward
(02:50):
and falling in shards on the ground.
The building shook violently, the horses startled and people
screamed in shock. But Carmen and her brother and
father were safe. Had they stayed where they were
on the road, this might have been a very different story.
They had left Enschede only minutes before the disaster
struck. Later they would learn that this
(03:11):
was just the start of what wouldbecome known as the Enstreet
Fireworks Disaster, a tragedy that would kill 23 people,
injure hundreds more and would completely destroy the
neighborhood of Rohmbek. On that sunny Saturday in May,
14 year old Rael was spending the afternoon with his older
brother and friends. They had been hanging out in the
(03:33):
top floor restaurant of the Viende department store in
Enstreet, a place where you could see the whole city.
As they looked out over the rooftops, they noticed a thin
plume of smoke rising in the distance.
Curious, they decided to head over and see what had happened.
By the time they arrived near the source of the smoke, a
growing crowd of around 200 onlookers had gathered, many of
(03:55):
them familiar faces from school.The fire was coming from the
storage facility, but the boys didn't know exactly what was
burning. We were young, he recalled years
later. It was just a fire.
We thought it might be interesting to watch, his
brother even joked. Who knows, maybe something
exciting will happen. But something came sooner than
(04:16):
expected. Fireworks began erupting from
the site, hissing and whistling into the surrounding streets.
People started to panic and run.Kyle dropped to the ground under
a small overhang, curling up with his back to the fire.
He waited for a lull, planning to Sprint to safety when things
calmed down. When it seemed quieter, he got
(04:37):
to his feet and managed only three or four steps before it
happened. A massive second explosion.
It was like a blanket of air. Picked me up, He said.
The blast flung him about 10 meters through the air before he
hit the ground hard on his stomach.
His ears were ringing, but he got up and saw blood soaking
(04:57):
through his light colored clothes.
He staggered into a nearby houseand collapsed against the
staircase, watching a pool of blood grow beneath him.
A firefighter appeared in the doorway and urgently radioed.
There's a boy here. He's dying.
We need an ambulance now. The words hit the young boy
hard. Kyle's mind went immediately to
(05:19):
his mother, who was terminally ill with cancer.
I wasn't crying because I thought I was dying, he
explained. I cried because I didn't want my
mother to have to go through losing me before she died
herself. He was rushed to the hospital in
critical condition. A block of concrete about the
size of a fist had struck his right side at an estimated 600
(05:40):
kilometers an hour, breaking ribs and tearing through his
abdomen before exiting on the other side.
His internal organs were badly damaged, but after multiple
surgeries he survived, left withextensive scarring but no
lasting physical impairments. What he had been caught in was
one of the worst disasters in the Netherlands since the Second
(06:00):
World War. It had been 3:25 PM when the
first massive explosion tore through the SE Fireworks storage
facility in the Dolastrat. When the fire reached one of the
main storage bunkers, the first huge blast ripped the side
apart, sending a shockwave outward.
The shattered windows tore roof tiles loose and collapsed
(06:21):
building fronts. The truth is, no one has ever
been able to say with certainty how the first fire at SE
Fireworks began. The explosions were so violent,
so all consuming, that they erased almost every trace of
physical evidence. Investigators worked with two
main possibilities. One was human action, an
(06:43):
accident, perhaps through carelessness or negligent
handling of fireworks, or something intentional like
arson. The other possible 'cause was
technical self ignition of firework materials or an
electrical short circuit. Whatever the spark, the fire
should have never been able to grow into what followed.
But at SE Fireworks the conditions for disaster were
(07:06):
already in place. The company's permit allowed no
more than 500 kilos of unpackaged fireworks.
In the workshop on Saturday, May13th, no work was taking place.
Yet in the same space there were900 kilos, almost double the
legal limit. When the stockpile caught fire,
(07:27):
it sent fireworks shooting in every direction, starting small
fires around the site. One of those fires spread into
an adjoining storage room through a flaw that should have
never existed. A7 centimetre hole in a
supposedly fireproof wall cut tomake way for a sprinkler pipe.
Through that opening. Flames had a clear path from one
(07:50):
part of the building to the next.
Outside, another small fire was smoldering in a cramped
triangular space between containers, a spot cluttered
with debris, including an old trailer.
One of those containers in the triangle E 2 was stacked with
heavy professional fireworks right up against the thin metal
(08:12):
walls. Those walls were only rated to
withstand heat for 4 minutes. When E2 finally went, that blast
unleashed the chain reaction that would destroy the entire
neighborhood. 42 seconds later, a nearby Marvel box called M7
exploded, taking several others with it.
(08:33):
Just over a minute after that, more containers went up, and
then the rest of the facility followed in one massive
detonation. And here's the most damning
fact. SE Fireworks was only licensed
to store the safest kind of fireworks, category 1.4.
On paper, almost everything on site carried that label, but in
(08:57):
reality, only 9% actually met that standard.
The rest, roughly 160 tons, was much more dangerous.
Class 1.31, point 2, and even 1.1.
That last category is the most dangerous of all mass explosive
(09:17):
fireworks that can go off in a single devastating blast.
Some of the 1.1 fireworks were kept together with 1.3
fireworks, and in a fire, that combination could react the same
as a full stock of 1.1, exploding all at once with
maximum force. The result?
(09:37):
The explosive power present in the residential neighborhood was
many times higher than what the law allowed.
And it wasn't just the type or quantity of fireworks that was
the problem. The site itself was a catalog of
safety violations. Poor fire separation, illegal
containers, cluttered spaces where fire could spread
(09:58):
unnoticed. The official report didn't stop
with blaming SE Fireworks. Oversight from authorities had
been LAX. Inspections were infrequent,
focused mainly on consumer fireworks, and barely
documented. Time and again, the company was
allowed to expand or change its setup without proper checks.
(10:19):
In the end, this wasn't just onebad day.
It was years of dangerous practice, ignored warnings and
inadequate oversight, all waiting for that one spark to
turn the home bake into an inferno.
When the fire reached one of those main storage bunkers, the
first huge blast ripped the siteapart, sending a shockwave
(10:40):
outward that shattered windows, tore roof tiles loose and
collapsed building fronts. Just 40 seconds later came the
2nd and largest explosion, the one that threw hail in the air.
Its force was equivalent to 800 to 900 kilograms of TNT and was
heard more than 100 kilometers away in Leilistadt.
(11:04):
The shockwave obliterated everything.
Nearby. Rows of houses collapsed into
burning rubble. Fires erupted across the
neighborhood as gas lines ruptured.
Vehicles were tossed like toys. The air became a choking mix of
dust, smoke and the stench of burning chemicals, accompanied
by the relentless banks of fireworks still exploding in the
(11:25):
wreckage. The destruction reached far
beyond Rome, Bake across ends today.
Windows shattered, shop fronts cracked and alarms wailed.
By day's end, 23 people were dead, including four
firefighters killed while tryingto control the initial blaze.
Nearly 1000 others were injured.For the survivors, the sights,
(11:48):
sounds and sensations of that afternoon would never fade.
A day when a column of smoke turned in seconds into a
disaster of historic proportions.
In the moments after the 2 main explosions, Ensde was in shock.
The scene in Romebek resembled awar zone.
Streets were filled with debris.Fragments of bricks, wood and
(12:11):
glass littered the ground. Thick black smoke blocked out
the sun, turning the bright May afternoon into an eerie
twilight. The silence that followed each
explosion was quickly replaced by the sounds of screaming,
crying and sirens converging from all directions.
Many survivors would later say at first they didn't understand
(12:34):
what had happened. Some thought it was a plane
crash. Others believed that the Halls
Brewery, located nearby had exploded.
Some compare the shockwave to anearthquake.
One of those who rushed toward the disaster instead of away
from it was Marco von Zoltan, a police officer who had been
coaching his son's football match when the first explosion
occurred. From the field, he could see the
(12:55):
massive column of smoke rising. He called the control room, but
even their information was scarce.
He cycled home, put on his uniform, and within hours was
working inside the disaster area.
What he found was chaos. A neighborhood reduced to
rubble, personal belongings scattered on the streets, a
coffee cup still sitting in a garden, a child's bicycle laying
(13:18):
in the middle of the road and the unshakeable silence of homes
that moments before had been full of life.
The fires were relentless. Gas lines had been ruptured by
the blast, feeding flames that consumed house after house.
Fire crews from across the Netherlands and Germany poured
into Entre De to assist, but even they faced enormous risk
(13:41):
not knowing if more explosions were coming.
For hours, secondary blasts fromfireworks continue to erupt in
the ruins, forcing rescuers to retreat and reapproach.
Again and again, medical personnel worked under extreme
pressure. Hospitals in Ensley quickly
reached capacity. Many victims were sent to
neighboring cities such as Hangelow to free up space.
(14:03):
In the most critical cases, the human toll was immediate and
devastating. 23 lives were lost,including four firefighters who
had been battling the fire when the first explosion hit.
Hundreds of others suffered burns, fractures and deep cuts
from flying debris. In total, almost 1000 people
(14:23):
were injured and for 1000 more their homes were gone.
The explosions had destroyed 400homes outright and damaged
around 1500 more. Approximately 12150 people were
left homeless in an instant. In the hours after the disaster,
emergency services sealed off the area.
(14:44):
Soldiers were deployed to assistwith securing the site and to
prevent loiting. For many residents, there was no
going back that night. Even those whose homes were
still standing were ordered to stay away, unsure if the
buildings were structurally safe.
In the days after the disaster, the blackened ruins of Lombek
became both a crime scene and a symbol of national grief.
(15:07):
The immediate priority had been to rescue and recover, but soon
attention turned to the questions everyone was asking.
How could this happen and who was responsible?
And it wasn't long before all the preventable mistakes came to
light. The disaster led to one of the
most high profile trials in Dutch modern history.
(15:28):
In 2003, the RNM Court of Appealconvicted SE firework directors
Rudi Baker and Villi Pater of causing the explosions through
negligence along with multiple safety and environmental
violations, and sentenced them to one year in prison.
The punishment many considered shockingly light given the scale
of the destruction. 23 lives lost, nearly 1000 injured and an
(15:52):
entire neighborhood destroyed. The verdict sparked public
outrage. Families of victims, survivors
and local residents felt justicehad not been served.
But these weren't the only charges brought.
In 2002, a man named Andre De Fries was convicted of arson and
sentenced to 15 years in prison.He spent about 2 1/2 years in
(16:16):
custody before the Arnhem Court of Appeal overturned the
conviction in 2003, acquitting him due to lack of evidence.
According to former detectives, the evidence against the fleece
had been tampered with. He later received €125,000 in
compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.
In the years that followed, whistleblowers and independent
(16:38):
researchers, including former MEP Paul von Bautenen and ex
detective Jan Baumann, alleged that the government's own
failures had been downplayed or concealed.
On October 28th, 2019, from Bauten and others filed a formal
criminal complaint against both local and national authorities,
accusing them of negligence and a cover up in the handling of
(17:01):
the SE firework permits and the investigation.
The case remains one of the clearest examples in the
Netherlands of how disaster can arise not only from an immediate
accident, but from years of systemic oversight failures when
the last fires were finally extinguished.
And so they faced a landscape that no one could have imagined
(17:22):
just days before, the Romeg district was gone.
Not damaged, not partially destroyed, but erased from the
map. Where there had once been
streets, gardens, playgrounds and homes, there was now only
blackened earth, mangled steel and piles of brick and ash.
In the weeks following the disaster, nearly 1500 people
(17:44):
were left homeless. Many were relocated to temporary
housing, often far from their old neighborhoods.
Families were scattered, and forsome the loss was not only
material but deeply personal. Parents without children,
children without parents or friends without friends.
Survivors spoke of years of nightmares, sudden panic at loud
(18:06):
noises and a deep mistrust of official reassurances.
Residents living within the blast zone continued to
experience physical health problems from the smoke, dust,
and asbestos released into the air that day.
The physical rebuilding of Rome began only after the painful
process of demolition and clearing.
(18:26):
Every structure within the core blast zone had to be removed,
and the soil was cleaned of asbestos and other contaminants.
When the reconstruction finally began, city planners made the
deliberate choice to redesign and make it a modern, open
district with wide streets and public spaces, a stark contrast
to the tight residential blocks that had stood there before.
(18:49):
Today, Rome Bake is known for it's contemporary architecture,
art galleries and cultural spaces, but it's past is never
far away. At the heart of the district
stands the Monument for the Vu, a memorial bearing the names of
the 23 people who lost their lives on May 13th, 2000.
Every year, on the anniversary of the disaster, residents and
(19:11):
survivors gather there to lay flowers and observe a moment of
silence. Even 25 years later, the
disaster shadow remains. For those who lived through it.
The sound of fireworks, the smell of smoke or even a sudden
loud bang can bring them right back to that sunny Saturday
afternoon when everything changed.
The End for Day Firework disaster is remembered not only
(19:34):
as one of the deadliest peacetime tragedies in Dutch
history, but also as a hard learnt lesson in urban planning,
industrial safety and governmental accountability.
It is a chapter that the Netherlands has vouched never to
repeat. And that is it for today.
Thank you all so much for listening.
If you found this an interestingepisode, feel free to subscribe
(19:57):
or leave a comment. I'd love to hear if you already
knew about this disaster. You can find any images related
to the case on the lowest crime Instagram account.
Thank you all so much for listening and I look forward to
seeing you in the next one.
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