Culemborg fireworks disaster

Location and construction The MS Vuurwerk BV factory was located 50 metres east of the Diefdijk, It proved to be particularly difficult to prevent the factory's establishment because he and most other close residents of MS Vuurwerk lived on the South Holland side of the dyke, and thus could not influence the decision-making of the municipal and provincial authorities on the other side. In the run up to and the aftermath of the disaster, victims from Vianen complained that their interests had all too often been overlooked. The air pressure wave was so powerful that cars driving by on the A2 motorway 100 metres away were almost blown off the road. Especially in the still-intact bunker where many unexploded fireworks were stored. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal service (EOD), which, coincidentally, was headquartered in Culemborg until 2011, deployed a "Wheelbarrow" observation robot for reconnaissance. This robot tried to find a sign of the two missing persons while also attempting to determine whether it was safe enough for firefighters to approach the fire. The firefighters had to wait until either the "end of the afternoon" or the "beginning of the evening" until they were given permission to start extinguishing efforts, when the EOD deemed the danger of further explosions to be over. == Aftermath ==

Victims and damage There were two fatalities: factory owner Henk Koolen's daughter and her husband. The film focuses on the clearance, reconstruction and emotional processing of nearby residents, as well as on the responsibilities of local government, including the handling of damage claims and allowing a possible rebuilding of the factory. Factory reconstruction cancelled To the great distress and annoyance of the overwhelming majority of nearby residents, Because it had never been determined that MS Vuurwerk had made mistakes, the municipality could not obstruct his plans when he intended to reconstruct his factory on the very same location. As of 2016, the terrain of the exploded factory, unchanged but overgrown since the early 1990s, is still in the hands of a granddaughter and grandson of Koolen. There were no plans for the terrain, but they did not intend to build another fireworks factory. == Investigation and consequences ==

Cause of the explosions In April 1991, the TNO Prins Maurits Laboratorium published a report on the Culemborg fireworks disaster, commissioned by the Ministry of Defence. TNO concluded that relatively light fireworks in large quantities caused an unexpectedly heavy explosion, because they were no longer contained within their packages. In April 1993, the direct cause of the explosion had still not been discovered, making it unclear whose responsibility it was. Eventually, after much struggle, all parties involved agreed to a compromise regarding repayments. Investigations showed that little to nothing was done with TNO's recommendations, because the ministries and inspection services "had communicated badly with each other, or not at all", Interior Minister Klaas de Vries admitted in 2001. The 15 January 2001 investigative report of the Firefighting Care and Disaster Control Inspection of the Ministry of the Interior, titled Onderzoek vuurwerkramp Enschede. Follow up Culemborg ("Enschede fireworks disaster investigation. Follow up Culemborg"), attempted to answer the question ‘To what extent have the conclusions and recommendations, proceeding from investigation into the 1991 fireworks explosion in Culemborg, resulted in actions?’. The report revealed that the TNO report was first presented to the Ministry of Defence, which serves an advisory role when granting licences to fireworks companies. But the Defence service for Environmental Licences did not consider urging stricter rules to be part of its job. In a 1991 letter, Arnhem-based advocate general Korvinus warned his superiors at the Ministry of Justice about other fireworks storage facilities throughout the Netherlands, but this ministry did not regard fireworks storage as its task. The Dangerous Substance Accident Control service from the Interior Ministry did seek to introduce stricter regulations for fireworks, which was discussed in several meetings of the Commissie Preventie Rampen door gevaarlijke stoffen (CPR, Dangerous Substances-borne Disasters Prevention Commission), == See also ==