Down below you can read an account of the way I witnessed the events on that fatal Saturday May 13th, 2000 in Enschede.

Saturday May 30th, 2000 started off quietly. It was a nice and sunny day and I only had an appointment at the hairdresser in Oldenzaal at noon. As it was a nice day, I decided to go by bicycle and to go shopping for a mother's day present after that. So, I went to Oldenzaal and considered visiting my parents for an hour or 2. However, as my parents live on the other side of Oldenzaal and I still needed to find 2 presents, I decided against doing that, and returned to Enschede straight after having gone to the hairdresser (Note: for those of you who didn't know this yet, I now live in Enschede).

Around 1 P.M. I entered Enschede again, and I went to a place where a lot of furniture shops are located, as I knew there was a cabinet there that is much to Gioconda's liking. To do this most efficiently, I went straight over a street called "Lasondersingel" and passed a museum which is located in a really pretty old -but well maintained- building, and of which I thought "Gee, I should take some pictures of this building". Nevertheless, with a "mission" ahead, I continued along my way to the shops. Along the way, without taking notice of it, I crossed a certain street called "Tollenstraat". This sounds insignificant now, maybe, but it will all become clear in a little bit.

2 'o clock P.M. came, and I had managed to "secure" Gioconda's present, so I proceeded to the centre of Enschede to find a present for my own mother. Around 2:30 or so, my mission was about completed, having in my possession a hair-curler, so I went home, to work a bit on my computer.

Around 2:50 P.M. I arrived at home, opened most of the windows, and went upstairs. At around 3 'o clock I heard several fire engines passing by with screaming sirens (as had been the case already 3 or 4 times over the course of one week). They passed by over one of the main streets of Enschede (i.e. "Oliemolensingel"), which is right next to my house. I didn't pay particular attention to it, made some coffee, and went upstairs again. I was working for some 10 minutes, when I went down to pour myself a cup of coffee. I went up (around 3:10 P.M.), and set the coffee next to the computer to let it cool down, so I could drink it. But... I never got around to actually drinking it...

At about 3:20 P.M. there all of a sudden was this very loud "popping" sound, the whole house was shaking and I felt a shockwave shooting through the house. I put one and one together, and knew that wherever the fire brigade was going, something massive must have exploded. The sound/effect of the explosion was comparable to what you experience when a jet plane breaks through the sound barrier (a thing which the shockwave of the explosion effectively does!), but it was so much stronger than what I had ever experienced in such an occassion.

I looked out through the window which is located on the south side of the house, as somehow the explosion appeared to have taken place there. I didn't see anything. A bit surprised, I went up to the attic, to look out of the windows over there. Again I opened a window on the south side and looked out of it.
Nothing...

Then all of a sudden a second shockwave came thundering through the house. The sound of this second explosion was much stronger than the first one, and the whole house, again, was shaking like a leaf in the wind. The window escaped from my grasp but did not break. This was a scary situation as it was clear that the explosions were not far away, and who knows what to expect next?

I went out of the room in the attic, and noticed from the corner of my eyes that there was this big black cloud on the north side of the house. I stood a second or two in awe, when it dawned upon me that the explosions must have taken place on the other side of the house than where I had expected them to be!

I quickly ran down the stairs, and grabbed my photo bag [for the Olympus list members: it contained my light-weight action pack; the OM-4Ti + 28/2 + 100/2 + T32]. When I came down, I noticed the curtain rail and the curtains in the kitchen had been blown off the wall and had fallen down. I very quickly put them up (in a sloppy way) and hurried outside.

Sure enough the big black cloud was still there, it was massive and I wanted to get a better view. So, I went in the direction of the explosions and soon learned that there was this big mushroom like cloud (not to the extremes as the ones seen in a nuclear explosion of course!) "standing" right above an urban area of the city!

I shot several pictures (see the main page), spoke to some people, and saw some pieces of fireworks flying up into the thick black cloud. I wanted to get a better view, and as people where moving towards the area of the explosion, I too followed in their wake. Of course this was a very stupid thing to do, but somehow it is what I automatically did.

I got closer and started to get my first view of the destruction the blasts had caused, at some 50 - 100 metres distance from my house several windows were already shattered. I proceeded to "Oldenzaalsestraat" and noticed how whole shop windows had been completely blown away. There was glass everywhere and several pieces of concrete were laying on the street, on cars, and in shops.

I still could not see "ground zero" (i.e. the area where the actual explosions had taken place) and proceeded further...
Crying people, in a state of shock, started to make their appearance in the picture over there. Everyone was using their mobile to see if people were o.k., and hardly any firefighters were at the scene yet.

I went a street further and came across the museum building I had seen in full glory only some 2.5 hours before the blast. It was destroyed! The windows were all shattered, pieces of the roof were lying on the street, and whole parts of the side of the building had been blown out, it was a mess!

Now I started to get really near the area where the explosions had taken place...

I proceeded even further, and came upon a street which was right next to the storage area where there once was a... fireworks storage place, in the middle of an urban area!!!

Over here the destruction was really bad, whole fronts of houses/buildings were dislocated, the street was one big collection of glass, huge pieces of armoured concrete were pierced straight into the street, into the houses, into the cars, into everything. This was about 50 metres away from where the explosions had taken place.

I went a bit further still, into a street on the left (leading right up to "Tollenstraat" where I had only passed some 2.5 hours earlier!). Over here the damage was complete. Even more severely so, houses were wrecked, some people were walking bare-feeted through the glass, in shock. From this street I could see whole house-blocks being on fire, everything was covered by flames, and some fireworks were still going up into the air.

I took several pictures here, and I was over there for some 5 more minutes. There was no further proceeding, as there were no streets left to go into: it was like a warzone. Strangely enough, in the street I was standing, only a few wounded people were over there, just a few that had some glass-cuts, nothing that seemed too seriously.
Unfortunately, it was imminent that the people who once lived in the streets that have now been completely leveled, and which were burning to a crisp when I was near there, were not quite so fortunate...

An early arrived firefighter (probably one of the ones who were there to put out the initial fire) came chasing us away. It was for the better as there were still small explosions of fireworks to be heard and seen. I started making my way back, carrying my bicycle over the glass-overladen streets, and I noticed several huge pieces of steel container lying all over the place.

I then went back into the city centre (also over there there was glass everywhere), to see if I could maybe find a newspaper headquarters to give them my rolls of film, but I did not succeed in finding one.

I decided to return to my house instead, and upon returning towards my house, I came across Gioconda and Karol on the streets. They had gone swimming in a swimming pool in the other side of Enschede (I knew this, so I did not need to fear for their safety), and they had "just" found out about the location of the blast then (this was something like 4:30 P.M.) although they did hear and feel the blasts of course.

We quickly went back a bit to where I had gone before, but we were stopped by the fire brigade, who urged us to leave. We complied (not wanting to obstruct them) and left.

Upon coming home again we turned on the television, waiting for special editions to be broadcasted. These editions were to come, but just some 10 minutes before that (5:50 P.M.) there was talk of the big Grolsch brewery being on fire! This may not sound too bad, but when you consider the size of the tanks that could potentially explode (we also found out later that there was a 6,000 liter tank of ammonia right next to the fire), yielding far greater explosions than the ones caused by the fireworks detonation, we decided to get the h*ll out of there.

We took our bicycles and just went straight into the opposite direction of the blast. Once well out of the city, we watched the news in a cantine on a campground, and at around 8:00 P.M. we heard that there was no risk anymore of anything exploding at the Grolsch brewery, so after the news we went home, still seeing the thick smoke above the city.

At home, we watched reports about the disaster until around midnight. It was terrible, at least 20 people died (confirmed), several hundreds more were injured, of which some 11 were still on intensive care, and a further 200 people were reported missing at that time.

The pictures of the streets right next to one I was in (i.e. the ones which I could not go into because everything was one blaze of fire there) were terrible. Whole houses (some 200 in total) have almost completely been obliterated, cars were completely burnt to a crisp, and it made me think of the pictures we always see of the German cities as they looked at the end of World War II. Apart from some walls nothing was standing anymore! We checked on the map just how far this had happened from our house, and it turns out the distance is only (roughly) 1 KM!!!

During the whole afternoon and evening help came from all over the country, and also very noticeably so, a lot from Germany. There were firefighters, ambulances, police cars, and rescue helicopters coming from as far as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the south of the country, and Germany (Germany is actually rather nearby to Enschede, but still it's great to see them help us to this extent!).

The city was -and still is- a big mess. The whole blast area had been sealed off hermetically (starting very near to the place I live) to prevent the so called "disaster turism" and plundering. Even now (May 30th) one still cannot enter the area right around ground zero. The damage is tremendous, and it will be a long time before that area will look remotely close to what it looked like only a little while ago...

On Sunday morning the queen and the prime minister (i.e. the "premier") came to inspect the scene. They looked shocked too. I tried to anticipate where they would pass if they were to come by car, and I tried to get a glimpse of them. I did not get to see them though, as apparently they had come in by airplane, and hence must have entered the city from the other side...

The Friday after the disaster, a silent procession was organised. It started very nearby our house, and we decided to participate in it. The oldest son of the queen (prince Willem Alexander - our future king) headed the procession, along with the prime minister and the mayor of Enschede. They passed us at a distance of some 2 metres, and after that we joined the procession too.

Many people were entering the long procession from all sides, so we were standing still for some 15 minutes. Then we decided to surpass a small part of the procession so as to hear the speeches in the park. Alas, we were still too late in the park to hear all of the speeches, but we did catch the last bit of it. Also, footage of both Gioconda and Karol was broadcasted on national TV several times. I was walking closely behind them, but I did not make my way to the TV then. However, a few friends of mine just mentioned having seen me in some amateur footage shot minutes after the explosion, which was broadcasted on some news program on Fox :)

For now, Enschede is licking its wounds, and "normal life" is gradually starting up again. I have several more pictures that are still not up on the page. I will try to add these pictures soon too.

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