On May 13, 2000, 22 people were killed and 947 injured when a fireworks depot in the town of Enschede (The Netherlands) caught fire and subsequently exploded.

The biggest blast was heard as far as 60 km from the scene. It wiped out an entire neighbourhood, destroying or damaging some 2,000 homes.

Read more, watch the actual video footage or pictures of the aftermath: Vuurwerkramp (Wikipedia) or BBC news

I don't recall hearing about that, but dang 60km away people could hear it.  That's one hell of an explosion

The managers of the company should have gotten a longer prison sentence.

I don't recall hearing about that, but dang 60km away people could hear it.  That's one hell of an explosion


...You watched the video (especially the last bit of it)? ???


The managers of the company should have gotten a longer prison sentence.


You know how it goes...first no-one's to blame, just some freak accident...Then people start pointing at eachother, and suddenly everyone's to blame...Experts come in, with contradicting opinions... And in the end, nothing can be proven.

So nobody remembers and/or cares...





...why did I even bother to bring up the subject?

I've never heard of this.  :-\\

We had this happen in the town I'm from, of course not of this scale, but some guy who worked at a fireworks factory decided to commit suicide.  I remember waking in the middle of the night, it sounded like someone punched my bedroom window as hard as they could.  My window faced south and the explosion was 8 to 10 miles north of our house....pretty intense.

I've never heard of this.  :-\\

We had this happen in the town I'm from, of course not of this scale, but some guy who worked at a fireworks factory decided to commit suicide.  I remember waking in the middle of the night, it sounded like someone punched my bedroom window as hard as they could.  My window faced south and the explosion was 8 to 10 miles north of our house....pretty intense.
What exactly did he try to do---blow himself up,shoot himself,or set himself on fire?? :o ???

What exactly did he try to do---blow himself up,shoot himself,or set himself on fire?? :o ???


I'm not really sure.  I always assumed that his plan was to blow himself up with the rest of the facility.

So nobody remembers and/or cares...


An important thing to remember - With regard to the American media - If it didn't happen in the state that the news is being broadcast in, it didn't happen.

An important thing to remember - With regard to the American media - If it didn't happen in the state that the news is being broadcast in, it didn't happen.


...unless of course it involves the U.S. of A. in general? ???

...unless of course it involves the U.S. of A. in general? ???


Hell, even that's a stretch.

Maybe in the north east or DC, but everywhere else, it's mainly local news until 10 o'clock, when you might get a brief nationwide broadcast.. and all of 32 seconds of international news.. and even then, it's only international news from the perspective of 'a local resident'.. which always makes me laugh.

For instance, the news stations here in St. Louis would.. if a bomb went off in somewhere like.. I dunno, Prague, do their damnedest to find somebody who had lived in, or had family in St. Louis, then interview them. Never mind if they were asleep when it went off and didn't know a thing about it, it would be more important to get their view than.. ya know... somebody who was actually there.  ;D

Needless to say, I get most of my news from Reuters.

So nobody remembers and/or cares...





...why did I even bother to bring up the subject?


Never heard about it, but it does concern me.  The only 2 people (except for you Henk) I ever knew from the Netherlands were from the uni in Enschede.

Never heard about it, but it does concern me.  The only 2 people (except for you Henk) I ever knew from the Netherlands were from the uni in Enschede.


That's getting uncomfortably close...but I don't think you have to worry. Uni wasn't affected by the blast.

That's getting uncomfortably close...but I don't think you have to worry. Uni wasn't affected by the blast.


Thanks for telling me, though I don't know that either one are still at the uni.  Lost touch, so am not sure.  I think one works for a ministry, but again, not sure.

What about you, how did it affect you physically/geographically speaking?

my God, i just watched the video footage. unbelievable. that last blast was tremendous.  was it the biggest blast or just where the camera stopped rolling?

Thanks for telling me, though I don't know that either one are still at the uni.  Lost touch, so am not sure.  I think one works for a ministry, but again, not sure.

What about you, how did it affect you physically/geographically speaking?


It didn't affect me personally, as I'm living in another part of the country, and I've no relatives living in the area either.

I remember seeing video footage of the events for the first time though (different from the one that's linked to the Wikipedia article)...it almost blew me away.

my God, i just watched the video footage. unbelievable. that last blast was tremendous.  was it the biggest blast or just where the camera stopped rolling?


The last blast you see was the biggest and final blast, the one that blew away an entire neighbourhood.

I've seen other footage that was shot at the time, from another point of view (a doorway down another street), but the effect was just the same. People were simply blown off of their feet, and cameras went blank for a while.
And then, when the fire was extinguished, you got to see what was left of the neighbourhood... A war zone, I tell you.
I think we were lucky "only" 22 people were killed. It could have been much worse.