I still remember this like yesterday. My uncles lived very close to this explosion. They were on holiday that day and were really lucky. They came back to their whole house gone and probably wouldn't have survived if they were home. Each year they return to remember their neighbours. Bless everyone who helped victims that day and each day after that
Probably the closest thing to this that happened near me was that time a welding supply depot in Dallas, Texas went up. A bunch of acetylene tanks caught fire and it was on from there. Some of these tanks even shot off like rockets into the surrounding area and onto nearby freeways. By the time the fire was brought under control the depot was a total ruin.
God bless them and their neighbors who had to endure this tragedy. Prayers for the firefighters who lost their lives and the ones who have to remember that day.
90% of these cases: Sane person: "This is a disaster waiting to happen! Do something to prevent it." Businesses/government: "Well preventing it would cost money so our hands are tied". Courts after the disaster: "No one is responsible"
@@WouldntULikeToKnow. Publically traded corporations HAVE to prioritize profits and maximize growth every year for their shareholders. They're legally beholden to not care about anything but money.
I remember reading an article about a girl who had moved into her new house in Roombeek on the 13th of May, 2000. Her house once stood behind the SE Fireworks depot and when the explosion happened, she was disintegrated into literal nothingness. They never found a thing from her. No accessories. no bones, no fragments. Made me realize how insane that explosion truly was.
There are several people declared dead which are believed they died in the explosion or following fire but were never found. About Marjolein (the girl you describe), she moved in in Februari 2000, not on that same day. But it is correct, never been found again. There is an interview with her parents in Tubantia online where you can find what has happened to her as her parents later heard of the RIT. I was living about 60 kilometers away from Enschede and we did hear the explosion and could see the smoke rising into the air. Was a beautiful sunny saturday as I remember. Was also very lucky it was this weather because many people weren't home at the time of the explosion. Would be much much worse when it would have been cold or rainy weather and everybody was at home...
"How could they pass inspection only a few weeks earlier?" Easy, companies always know when inspection day is. They closed the doors they needed closed, tidied things up, and the extra fireworks and shipping containers were probably loaded onto trucks and driven somewhere else for several hours until that evening after the inspectors left. This is how many companies pass inspection. On regular work days things are not the same as during inspection days.
@@lesprentice583 Everyone I worked for always knew. We would spend a week or two getting everything ready, putting toxic and flammable materials that are sitting around in proper storage locations, things like that. The inspectors always found a few minor things they said we should change. Once and inspector said we needed to fix this escape hatch because it extremely difficult to open. I put gas pneumatic cylinders, aka gas spring lift, so the hatch opened easily even in a power outage. The thing is, that escape hatch had been that way for 20 years. In those 20 years if there had been a fire blocking the stairway, only the healthiest men would have been able to climb that ladder and lift the hatch enough to escape. Women and fat guys would have died of smoke inhalation.
@@lesprentice583 Well the managers of some companies know what day the inspection will be. Do you perhaps think there is zero corruption in the government? I assume somebody bribes somebody at the regulatory office. All I know is the boss would have a list of things to be done by a certain date for the inspection, and miraculously when that date came the inspectors would show up.
I myself worked in a job where we would know the exact day two weeks in advance and a friend of mine in the food industry was also notified a few days in advance. Both companies cleaned up their shit a bit for the inspection and then went back to breaking every rule the day after.
At the beginning there was more horror, now its more fucked up imo because of how real it feels. Like a bunch of hikers vanishing and maybe aliens is interesting, but corporate negligence causing mass death is... yikes.
Can anyone help me understand how this is possible? I understand many cases take place between the 60s and 90s but could you just be grossly negligent and killing dozens and dozens of people at that time and just walk away with like a small fine?
I still remember hearing about the incident from my brother. He's a train conducter and was just passing through Enschede when it happened. It was so enormous, the whole train shook, even though it was almost 2km away!
"In the end, though there was much criticism of all parties involved, few people faced any real consequences." You know the old saying: victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
You have no idea how many times I've heard the "well nothing has happened yet, why would it go wrong in the future?" Argument and I always cringe when they say it. Sure, there is a good possibility nothing will ever go wrong and everything will be fine, but why in the world would you want to take that kind of a risk?? There is a reason for rules and a reason they call them risks, not because you are 100% going to die, but because you have a significant chance to. It is not even that hard to just be safe, honestly. People are just too lazy when it comes to that kind of stuff I guess.
May or may not result. What is guaranteed however is it will save costs. And that's what the consumer wants and chooses. Everyone virtue signals on the internet. But when push comes to shove they'd prefer cheap crap made in sweatshops.
Me at work: *Staring off into space* *In my head*: "On the 13th of July 2021, Tom Davies made a mistake that would sadly cost his life and injure several others........." Me at work: Where's the health and safety booklet?! Check everything!!..........
I remember this all too well. I was 16 years old, and in the hospital in Almelo (a neighbouring town). I had just had my appendix removed and I was recovering on the 5th floor. I spotted the plume of smoke, and after a little while a trauma helicopter started flying to and from the hospital I was in. I turned on the local news and was horrified by what was on. The nurses called my mom and had her pick me up, as they needed my bed and I could recover at home. When my mom was coming up to get me, the hall of the hospital started filling up with wounded and bleeding people. One man grabbed her by the arm, sobbing, as he didn't know where his wife and kids were. How I got out of the hospital and into the car is a blur. The entire region of Twente still remembers this event very well. In later years, I have visited the site and the memorial, and it's very impressive. I never liked fireworks as a kid, and I was very much done with them after seeing that plume of smoke and that trauma helicopter making trip after trip after trip.
I never thought I'd ever hear you say "on the 13th of May, 2000". This hits literally too close to home. I was eleven years old and I lived less than 8km (5 miles) from this exact spot at the time. I remember seeing the biggest cloud of smoke I'd ever seen and I have never heard more firetrucks and ambulances on a single day since then. It's a dark page in our history.
“We have a spotless safety record by carefully sticking to safety rules. Let’s ignore those in the future.” I am getting a bit fed up how nobody seems to be really punished when there is obvious negligence.
It's ridiculous (and honestly infuriating) how common this mindset is though. It was the exact same thing with lockdowns. People were made to lockdown and isolate so the virus didn't spread. And then a bunch of people went: _"Look, the virus isn't even spreading, this lockdown thing is clearly unnecessary if no one is getting the virus. Let's go out and party."_ And then they all got sick.
Money rules. In so cal we have sooo many uneducated poor people, they will kill for a sand which. Gang stalking better make ti the best respected people in life. It’s insaaaaane
@@TheMrVengeance As they should. You can't stay locked down forever, and they said it was to "flatten the curve," though anyone with IQ that's a positive number can see that it's about control, not health.
Im sensing a trend with all disasters from watching this channel: When an accident happens blame travels upwards…if the blame reaches the top no one gets punished and everything is swept under the rug. Same for all the nuclear disasters or other times negligence has caused the death of hundreds. Like another commenter said: “The road to safety is written in blood”
For anyone interested, the Enschede incident has actually been in the Dutch news recently. Parliament is trying to open a new investigation since the original investigation obviously got corrupted. A former member of the European Parliament is serving as a whistleblower for the original investigation, shedding new light on things they let slip in order to keep the government from owning any responsibility for the incident. However, the committee who would be in charge of the new independent investigation is also reluctant to possibly shed light on the government’s lack of oversight leading up to the incident, so Parliament is having a hard time getting the committee to open a new investigation. Not that this means anyone will finally be held accountable, but here’s to hoping. This article is in Dutch, but it explains the situation: www.google.nl/amp/s/amp.nos.nl/artikel/2387268-tweede-kamer-wil-onafhankelijk-onderzoek-vuurwerkramp-enschede.html
@@user-gj7lp5iz6k It takes a diaster like what happened in Enschede where people die (blood) for things (safety) to finally be regulated or laws passed/changed. It shouldn't be this way and it shows how money/power (and therefore corruption) is above human lives.
@Albert Strauss the lowley worker should be punished if they were the proxemite cause and went against the standard procedures. Almost all of these incidents are caused by upper management trying to cut corners and save a penny
@@user-gj7lp5iz6k IMO, saying, "The rules of safety are written in blood" would be a bit more logical. After all, how does one write the road of safety? Write the road? ~ Cheers
What a bizarre thread. So basically people are supposed to be psychic on everything? Account for every potential incident? If that was the case people would say that we were trying to wrap the planet in bubblewrap.
@@WillmobilePlus They built a bunch of houses next to, essentially, a giant pile of black powder and then didn't bother storing the powder properly. You need to be psychic to see why this is a bad idea?
@@gentlemanvaultboy8671I'm talking more about the idea that there is something fundamentally askew that safety regulations come about mostly in hindsight. If building houses next to a fireworks factory, that was once isolated, was that obviously a dumb of an idea at the time, people would have not done it, even if we in hindsight, we look at these people as being dumb as rocks for doing it. Look at how how we have homes built next to gas stations today, with no thought of the fact that a massive gas bomb is sitting right underground next to them. We just assume they are 100% safe, and because we haven't had a neighborhood go up by one exploding, it must be ok. Or even go further and look at how many places are built around airports that were once alone in the middle of the country 30 years ago.
“Meanwhile, the Dutch government started a huge program of reform related to the handling of fireworks“. A little late for those killed and injured and made homeless
I love how the screen goes black and the music stops when he talks about the human cost of the tragedy. It's so minimalist and respectful. So tragic and horrifying. Truly amazing work.
Thank you for covering this. My sister lives in Enschede and had an art studio on this industrial complex. She was supposed to be there that day, but her work asked her to cover for someone. Her studio and all her art got destroyed. Of course, that is nothing compared to the lives that were lost. I still lived with my parents on the other side of the country, and i remember when we went and visited soon after, so many houses had lost all their roof tiles, even miles away from where it happened. It was such a weird sight. Very surreal
Both my father in law and my mother in law, together with my partner, used to live near Enschede when this happened. They told me that they could feel the shock going through the ground. A mutual friend used to work at a hospital when it happened and it has been one of the most traumatic shifts he ever worked. It's still talked about as the biggest tragedy to ever happen in that region.
The same happened recently with the "toeslagenaffaire" which caused people to become homeless and some even committed suicide. No-one really took responsiblity for those people losing their means of existance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_childcare_benefits_scandal
@@Ozymandias1 Mark Rutte zal t nooit doen in ieder geval! En we gaan gewoon opnieuw massaal voor de vvd kiezen? Zijn mensen nou echt zo stom en haast…. Volgend alsof ze een lobotomie hebben gehad?
@@fluffy-fluffy5996 Hahaha grappig dat je dat nou net zegt, wou dus iets zeggen onder het mom van "kunnen we vvd stemmers die nu alsnog klagen over de overheid verplicht een lobotomie geven?" maarja, volgens mij heb je überhaupt al een lobotomie gehad moeten hebben om VVD te stemmen
I remember this disaster very well. It also made headlines in Germany, because Enschede is very close to the border and German firefighters and rescue workers helped to fight the blaze and with the rescue efforts. The Enschede explosion also prompted German authorities to take a closer look at fireworks factories and storage facilities in Germany. Finally, let me compliment you on pronouncing Enschede correctly.
Ironic. The photos of the aftermath look like something the Germans would have done to the neighborhood a few decades prior, and this time they were rushing in to help fix things.
I would think in Germany it could also be a little awkward cause just a few years earlier there was a disaster in a German town of the same name. A massive train crash that killed over 120.
Thank you so much for covering this! I was a teen at the time, living in the town of hengelo nearby and we could all hear the huge bang. We were in the garden because it was a lovely sunny saturday and we could eventually clearly see the huge black cloud. We first thought there was a fire at the old pump factory (no longer in use) a few streets behind our house but pretty soon (even without mobile phones) stories came pouring in about what had actually happened. I had a couple of friends who were affected but luckily were uninjured. It was truly awful. 😢 Elderly were also very shocked because it looked so much like the damage they saw before during WWII. I think the victims did receive some compensation money too from the government in the end 🤔
My first thought on the situation was "why would they build a fireworks facility inside an urban area" but sounds like the urban area came to them. Ah, progress
Take some time to look up Lockheed Martin's weapon facilities. Most of them are in the middle of high density areas. Universal Studios' newest theme park project, Epic Universe, is being built on one of Lockheed's former missile testing ranges in downtown Orlando. Lockheed's Hellfire missile guidance system is built less than a mile from the high school I attended.
I remember this on TV. I'm still amazed how relatively few people died because of this. Especially seeing the giant crater and a complete neighborhood just being gone.
Many people must've gone away for a relatively safe distance to watch the scene after the initial fire started. All the fumes, heat and sounds must've been bad enough. It's lucky the explosion occurred after many hours of the initial fire .
This disaster shook the Netherlands to its core and together with the fire at Café de Hemel in Volendam, started a large debate on safety when it comes to fireworks. Thanks for covering this!
In the past week or so I've binged everything Fascinating Horror has to offer. Now my RUclips knows I'm interested in tragedies, and keeps recommending me different channels. But I don't click on any of them, scared that they won't be nearly as respectful and well researched as FH is. So thanks, FH, for both making me an instant subscriber and scaring me off from your competition. Great vid as always :)
Pretty much all the people that cover aviation disasters are extremely respectful, so you could start there. Some of them err too far on the side of caution and perhaps omit interesting but somewhat disturbing details, but time is finite and incident reports are thick, so all of them have to pick and choose what to talk about.
I know this is 10 months old and I wouldn't be shocked if you never saw this, but I have to say it because it's very important. You've probably seen Mr. Ballen in your recommendations (if you haven't, go look him up) and I would recommend watching him and not being scared of him not being respectful. He's on the same level as this guy, I PROMISE you. Like I could not promise harder. Eleanor Neale is also a good youtuber to watch. She's also very respectful. My point is not to be scared off just because you think no one else is gonna be as respectful as this dude, because I swear that is not true. There may not be many respectful people, but there's definitely some really good ones.
I find it bizarre that the company business grows and grows, but they can't spend any of that money on a warehouse and instead pack 180 tonnes of fireworks into an 18 tonne space. An accident waiting to happen due to greed, it seems.
_"An accident waiting to happen due to greed, it seems."_ Reality is a bit more nuanced however. As stated in the video, a few weeks before the disaster, the factory received an approval of the local fire department as part of an extension of their license provided by the municipality. For approvals like these, the fire department does (or should do) an investigation onsite.
As a Dutch guy that lives near this area, I have ALWAYS wanted a video like this to exist. My dad is one of those people that noticed smoke in the sky. I'm so glad for this. Thankie homie :)
For some reason, I totally didn't expect this one to be featured on one of my favourite channels these days, but awesome to see you covering this sad event too! I remember this one well, I live some 30Km from the epicenter of the explosion and went to college there. The school I went to still had damage in the form of a tear in the walls, caused by a massive block of concrete that slammed into the building (from over a kilometer away).
I don't remember it since I was too young, but my mom remembers being annoyed that Eurovision was interrupted and the Dutch entry had to withdraw. She didn't realize at first how bad the disaster actually was.
I've noticed a common theme among these videos. Almost never does anyone pay any real legal consequences and when they do it's nowhere near fit for the crime.
In China, when there's an egregious case that gets the public mad, the CCP ends up executing or giving a harsh punishment to those responsible (or scapegoated). But greed and/or corruption keeps companies flouting safety/environment guidelines. The threat of a life sentence or execution doesn't seem to matter. Profits always win.
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 And like you say, it's not necessarily those actually responsible, but someone scapegoated. I could easily imagine scenarios where the high-up people cut corners in the name of profit, and corrupt government inspectors/officials let it slide. Then when something happens the whole incident gets blamed on some lowly employee who, carrying out orders from those above or doing what they have to do given the circumstances created by those above, "causes" the incident. That person gets blamed, punished, executed, solving the angry public's thirst for blood, even though those actually responsible get off free. This is the issue I see in many cases, the public doesn't understand a nuanced view of what happened and why, the story leading up to it, who's more justifiable to blame, but they still want to see some sort of punishment doled out, usually on some conspicuous or obvious person, without understanding the situation - then once this is done move onto the next piece of outrage whether or not those responsible were held accountable or anything done to actually remedy the situation. Who the blame is on is easily manipulated by those in power. Though I have seen the other way, a CEO being blamed for the actions of an individual, or things that are just unfortunate incidents. That United Airlines incident where the guy got dragged off the plane, everyone immediately demanded the United CEO resign. But in reality he wasn't to blame in any way - mostly it was the victim's actions to blame, and the TSA, maybe some of that flight's crew. Minimal to do with the airline, which wasn't even United but another company operating under the United Express name by contract. So in short, don't jump on the outrage bandwagon, learn the whole story before demanding any heads - much less who's - roll. And likewise we need to re-focus our criminal justice system as that - a justice system - rather than a vengeance system as it often feels like.
That's the true horror of all this. Sure, the deaths, the destruction, and the injuries are part of it but the real horror is the fact that, even if it is the fault of the government ignoring rules and regulations, no one is compensated for it. Only when something goes drastically wrong will humanity learn from it. ...who's to say this flaw in our learning could end our own race, the last lesson we'll ever see being an apocalyptic consequence of governments screwing up?
A nice and detailed video! A quick note: the housed were already there around the sight when it openend. Enschede was and still is a industry city. In the past, it had big textile factories. Those factories built neighborhoods around their companies for their workers. This is why a lot of neighborhoods had industry zoned land slab dab in the middle. Therefore, these companies could exist amongst housing. Laws have since been changed
No one ever seems to ever face any REAL consequences for their actions in so many of your videos, no matter how high the injury or death toll. It’s really a disgrace 🤬
i suspect the answer is money. most of the time the people who own/oversee these kind of businesses are pretty wealthy (compared to the normal/average people). so either they pay someone off to get away with almost no punishment. or they use that money to hire lawyers who know how to work/manipulate the system. it's a sad truth that the more money/power someone has the less likely that person is to get (fairly) punished for his/hers crimes.
Sry to say in this case you're actually wrong the owner already applied and asked to move the facility he knew how many fireworks there were and as the fire started he told the fire department to evacuate everyone in the surrounding area and the look up the footage crowds watching and there is a bigger story that just recently came out it wasn't greed that caused it
The dutch justice system isn't one for punishment, but for reduced recidivism. Add to that the burden of proof is so rigid that judges often refuse to convict for violations that aren't proven beyond a reasonable doubt. As in this instance, so much of the physical evidence got destroyed in the blast, only surviving documents could be used and documents are easily adjusted to suggest no wrongdoing.
One I actually remember happening. My grandmother lived in the city when this happened - she was fine - and I remember constantly waiting for updates on what was going on.
Man this feels like yesterday, funny to see your vid pop up. I remember being at a family birthday party and an uncle calling out to turn on the tv after having had a phonecall from a coworker. The room went silent for the next hour as the situation unfolded. To this day, the disaster is still brought up every year as our country starts to move away from consumer-legal fireworks in an atempt to stimy injuries, fatalities and damage to (state)property occuring each year around NYE.. good video, love the channel ✌️
Something I always love about your videos that I don’t normally see pointed out is that you always have full captions available right away. That’s a great bit of accessibility work that not everyone does, so thank you! Keep up the great work!
I think I would blame local politicians more than the company. Residential structures around a fireworks factory that used to be in an open field? I mean, come on...
Thats just not really a thing here in the netherlands, especially when it's such a big event that happened. Especially Not in the 90's or early 2000's, these kind of things don't get placed with local politicians thats more of a recent thing and than still would be picked up by the higher ups in goverment
@@ottosump3356 Yeah, prison sentences in the netherlands are pretty much almost always short . You don't really go above 25 years. As my parents like to say: you better murder someone, than steal some candy. Because they would be more lenient😅
_"Residential structures around a fireworks factory that used to be in an open field?"_ It used to be an open field until around 1890. That's the decade that the neighborhood was builr around some textile factories in that area. This is a mistake in the video.
I remember seeing the smoke rising from my garden when it happened. I live 20 - 30 miles from Enschede across the border, so it was a pretty big issue sround here for the years after it happened
Honestly this channel does it best for me Its always a safe bet watching FH because he never shows distressing audio or video, only pieces from before and the aftermath (if he does show footage of the event itself, it never has gore or active death, which is very nice for more sensitive audience) He recounts everything factually, detailing those involved, the events leading up to the disaster, how they unfolded, and the fallout without getting into more sensitive details. Even discussing the outcomes and impacts from when the dust settles, like accountability or law changes. Plus, he talks about lesser-known disasters from way in the past, small communities, or simply not discussed enough from all around the world. There's always something new to hear about Instead of trying to disturb, he tries to educate on disturbing matters. It's such a great channel and I'm always looking forward to uploads! :)
I very much appreciate the history and content this channel produces. Quoting both meters and feet for measures is very much appreciated as well. Thank you.
I'm from the Enschede area and I know quite some people who have been traumatized by the explosion. They often have no childhood pictures left and whenever they hear a bang, they're very anxious.
I was really young when this happened, but I will never forget hearing about it, sadly this wasn’t the only fireworks disaster we’ve had. A much smaller firework (a sparkler) was the cause of a large fire in a cafe in Volendam a year after the Enschede disaster, killing many young people who were celebrating the new year.
This channel is both fascinating and horrifying! I’ve been binge watching all your videos the past two days. The only negative is that it’s absolutely infuriating hearing about the choices a lot of these people made. So many lives lost and traumatized basically because of greed/ego.
I was wondering when this topic would show up. I actually live in Enschede and went through this disaster. I was just about to start my final school exams that following week. My school was actually quite close to the blast zone; just a street or two over buildings were completely destroyed. It blew out basically all the windows in our gym, so we had to take exams at a different school in the city. Everyone passed. I can still recall every detail of that saturday. I started off buying a paper, since I was actually featured in an article about the upcoming exams. I got home and suddently heard a bang. Walked outside our front door and looked towards the area of the explosion. At first we thought it was a plane crash or something, but then we noticed the fireworks. As I was standing there, the second blast happened. Much, much bigger than the first. We were only about a mile or two away from ground zero. It was so powerful, it actually knocked me back against the house and dislodged some windows in our street. Soon after it was clear we were in an actual emergency situation. We followed the news, which basically told us that things might not be over quite yet. Firefighters were trying to keep the ammonia storage tanks from the beer brewery from exploding, they said. If that had happened... well, best not to think about that. I personally didn't lose people, but an aunt and nephew did lose their home in the blast. My nephew actually was missing that entire day; he was home at the time and basically walked to another aunt's house halfway across the city. This was before everyone had cellphones, not that it would've done much good to call at that time. A classmate of my sister was one of the kids who died while sheltering in their home. The cleanup took months; the images looked like a complete warzone. They rebuilt the entire area and it's very nice to visit. There is a small memorial there as well to remember the tragedy.
It happened again in the Netherlands only a few months later when small firework sparkling sticks caused a pub fire in the tourist town Volendam, where 14 kids were killed during New Years Eve celebrations and dozens were maimed by burning scars. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volendam_New_Year%27s_fire
One of my friends does urbex photography and I was helping him find an abandoned themepark/waterpark in Taiwan on Google Maps. To find out more, I decided to look up info as to why the park closed... It wasn't good. (Check Formosa Water Park Taiwan, also a good topic for this channel. Basically: colored powder + a spark + pool = lot of people with very nasty burns.) Edit: realise it's not actually fireworks that caused this, or at least, they're not sure. So it's not really on-topic, but still interesting.
This isn't even a new thing either. In 1613 the original Globe theatre in London burned down after a cannon used for special effects misfired and started a blaze.
Composition C2 preceded C4, but the fact that there was a C2 probably meant there was a C4 as well, which I think storing explosive materials inside a warehouse named after an explosive material was probably a poor choice.
We saw that even professionals can be careless around fireworks, in LA the police department detonated a bunch of fireworks in a neighborhood in South LA and injured 17 people.
@@brianpj5860 Well, indeed not 'professionals' in the sense they handle it in a professional manner, no. But certainly 'professional' in the sense that such people's job is handling fireworks or, explosives and general. Therefore, it is their profession... But I'm sure you get the gist as well as I got yours.
It reminds me of that video of a cop talking about gun safety at an American highschool and showing a gun to the pupils and then he said something like "I am a professional, I have been trained to use guns" and then he accidentily shot himself in his foot.
Omg I recently thought about this story and that you should make a video about that because it was a important piece of history in my country and the outside world had forgotten about it.
Ik had het ook al gestuurd per mail als suggestie, met onder andere ook de brand bij Café de Hemel in Volendam. Ik denk dat die en deze ramp erg veel te weeg hebben gebracht als het gaat om vuurwerk en veiligheid.
I stumbled upon your channel about a week or so ago and I've been binge watching ever since. This quickly became one of my absolute favorite channels. Really outstanding work. I'm going to check my finances after this month and see if I can afford to become a Patron. If I can, I absolutely will. Totally worth it.
Thanks for another great video. I remember this disaster and the aftermath. I have seen numerous documentaries about it, but you still added new insights to my knowledge.
The company: man, we've been following all these dang rules and nothing has gone wrong!! Guess we can save some money & make some more by loosening up our restrictions! *Huge explosion caused by lax following of safety rules* The company: *surprised Pikachu*
I sometimes think lack of incidents actually makes things worse in the end. It's human nature to keep taking more and more risks until something happens. If you get lucky and nothing happens, you keep taking bigger and bigger risks until when something finally does happen it's a gargantuan catastrophe.
Arrogance and complacency. BP literally believed that they were simply too good at their jobs to have an oil rig explode. And this was not some decision they made all at once. They kept adding little by little and became more concerned about their reputation as a reliable supplier. They simply got complacent and allowed one (quire legitimate) business concern become their primary focus. It is very rare for people in a business to deliberately and knowingly expose the public to a danger. What happens is that there needs to be a 'safety culture.' The company started out with a strong safety culture but let complacency erode that culture away. And the worst people for ignoring safety rules are not management - they are the line employees. These are the people who take shortcuts, come up with unapproved "better ways" to do their jobs etc. If management is not 'walking around' and instead sitting in their offices - there is no enforcement of safety rules. (And all too frequently, they'll have no idea what's even going on.)
I'm very happy that you covered this. I was thinking about asking for it. I moved around there a while ago, and I meet people who witenessed it. And a bonus is that you pronounced Enschede very well! Great video, thanks!
Man, I remember this happening, back when I was in high school. It was one of the worst disasters of the decade in our country. The crater at the exact spot the explosion happened is there to this day. It's a small pond now, apparently. The government branch I work at now is a regulatory organ that was actually created to prevent disasters like this one in particular, so it's interesting how its butterfly effect ending up affecting my life as well.
Fascinating (and horrifying, and informative) story, as always! And props to those brave firemen. 👏 But...but...what happened to your music?? 😔 EDIT: oh phew, it showed up again at the end! I might have attachment issues... 😅
Like yesterday! It was an incredible explosion and felt very unreal, my parents were in a supermarket where a roof collapsed. I drove my car a few blocks away and the car came off the ground at the second explosion. It was horrible to see all those injured and death people on the streets. Everyone needed help after the explosion and it took long before rescue begun but this was an massive explosion and also for the rescue workers unreal.
7:00 The number of these stories that contain a phrase like "the site had passed a safety audit recently" is a tragically informative. I applaud you for continuing to shine a light on these mistakes.
Very well made video of this! I was just 8 years old when this happened in my hometown, I couldn't believe my eyes. Multiple family members lived in this neighborhood but thankfully they were not at home when this took place but they did lose their homes. I still feel awful about the fact 22 people had to die for something that could have been prevented.
It all makes sense now. For years I've been hearing about the Enschede disaster, and thought: "It's not ENschede, but Eschede!" Because there was a train wreck in the mid-90s in Eschede, Germany, as far as I know the worst railway disaster ever to happen here, and someone I knew luckily survived with the whole of his family, but scars tell the story to this day.
Such a clear and distinct speaking voice - the only one I've ever seen not misquoted by Closed Captioning. Hooray ! Great job on the video, too. Horror is indeed fascinating.
I love that you are not a sensationalist, giving gory details and foul language to your fine videos. Just the facts in a creepy sort of way. Cheers from Ireland. ☘
@Disneybabydoll I think so, yes. I disliked the video because of the clickbait picture with a red circle, as if there was something to be seen on the last picture she made of herself
Didn't expect this to unearth some memories, I kinda remember my Mama following this story on the news since Enschede is less than 2 hours away from us. Negligence and corporate greed come to haunt us once again. Death and destruction for such pitiful things.
I love all your videos. It's nice when there's one that's about a recent event. It reminds us that we do need to still be aware of what's going on around us.
I was but 2 when it happened, but, living in the next town over (less than 10km from the factory itself) at the time, it left a far bigger impression on me than 9/11 ever did on me. But then- I heard and felt the boom, and, saw the smoke clouding overhead. I was going to contact you on doing an episode on this, but here you are! Thank you for the effort!
As long as people exist this channel will have content. This channel is great for learning accidents of the pass to prevent accidents of the future, one reason I think history is so important
I love the Dutch reaction to poor safety here and also in the design of their cities. Lots of children died in road traffic accidents during the 1970s, and now towns are planned around walking and cycling!!
I've been obsessively watching every single one of your videos. I didn't think there would be one that would hit so close to home though. As this is a disaster I've experienced first hand. I was 12 when this happened, and I was playing cello at a large concert at the conversatory less than a kilometer away from the blast. The explosions could be heard and felt through the otherwise well isolated concert hall, followed by a stampede of panicking kids, luckily the worst tragedies in the building itself were a few damaged instruments. At first nobody knew what was going on and they tried to continue the concert. But after about 10 minutes we were informed about what had occurred. We were given information about where it had happened and the building was cleared without too much trouble. My parents were listening to the performance and we met up. We were walking the streets, pretty much every large window was shattered. But we found our way to the parking garage and set off to head home. At that time my father was a major in the air force, stationed at the Enschede airbase. So he was well aware of the area. Figuring we would be able to avoid the blast area, we set off. However, we were misinformed about where the explosion had taken place, and we instead went closer to the blast area (which we. People were roaming the streets, not knowing where to go or what to do, there were concrete fragments everywhere. I vividly recall an old man shouting and crying about war. But we got through it and went back home. The smoke cloud could be easily seen from my house (about 15 kilometers to the north). My father was one of the people in charge of the facilities that, at least briefly, housed the remains of several victims at the airbase. Years later, he told me about his experience, and how he and others coped with the situation there. The worst story being someone trying to "return" the hat of a firefighter to their body, and my father having to correct them, pointing out that the hat wasn't just a hat, but also held the only remains that were found of another firefighter. I know this channel is here for the story about the disaster itself. But the rebuilding effort is something to take note of as well. The area had to be completely redeveloped. But old inhabitants of the area were given priority if they wanted to have a house there. Which means that at least after the rebuilding, plenty of the residents in the area were ones that lived there before the blast. The remains of the complex were purposely not demolished completely, and can easily be seen on google maps. There is a monument a few meters away. A quick google search for "Monument Vuurwerkramp Enschede" Should get you the exact location.
I know it is a small detail, but i love when channels section off the topics in the video. It gives me a great idea of the pacing of the video and i enjoy that
I still remember this like yesterday. My uncles lived very close to this explosion. They were on holiday that day and were really lucky. They came back to their whole house gone and probably wouldn't have survived if they were home. Each year they return to remember their neighbours. Bless everyone who helped victims that day and each day after that
Probably the closest thing to this that happened near me was that time a welding supply depot in Dallas, Texas went up. A bunch of acetylene tanks caught fire and it was on from there. Some of these tanks even shot off like rockets into the surrounding area and onto nearby freeways. By the time the fire was brought under control the depot was a total ruin.
Wow,they were really lucky,that they werent home on that day:0
God bless them and their neighbors who had to endure this tragedy. Prayers for the firefighters who lost their lives and the ones who have to remember that day.
There is always one who knows people
sure buddy
@@arandomstormtrooper5865 Er is altijd iemand die azijn heeft lopen vreten.
Jij, vriend.
Every company has a spotless safety record until it doesn't.
Well said.
Hear, hear.
All it takes is one bad incident
Small company expanded itself to much and wasn't prepared to work on a large scale operation something was bound to happen
0 days without an accident, because of Bob...thanks Bob!
90% of these cases:
Sane person: "This is a disaster waiting to happen! Do something to prevent it."
Businesses/government: "Well preventing it would cost money so our hands are tied".
Courts after the disaster: "No one is responsible"
No one or some random janitor
Greed is a major part of our down fall
Or those in government owned by corporations repeal safety and environmental regulations... I mean, profit before all else, right?
@@WouldntULikeToKnow. Publically traded corporations HAVE to prioritize profits and maximize growth every year for their shareholders. They're legally beholden to not care about anything but money.
“Everyone shares the blame, which really means no one is blamed. Cheers!”
I remember reading an article about a girl who had moved into her new house in Roombeek on the 13th of May, 2000. Her house once stood behind the SE Fireworks depot and when the explosion happened, she was disintegrated into literal nothingness. They never found a thing from her. No accessories. no bones, no fragments. Made me realize how insane that explosion truly was.
That poor girl. I would hope that it was instantaneous, and that she never had a chance to feel anything.
More than 1 casualty have been disintegrated
Marjolein Schreurs
There are several people declared dead which are believed they died in the explosion or following fire but were never found.
About Marjolein (the girl you describe), she moved in in Februari 2000, not on that same day. But it is correct, never been found again. There is an interview with her parents in Tubantia online where you can find what has happened to her as her parents later heard of the RIT.
I was living about 60 kilometers away from Enschede and we did hear the explosion and could see the smoke rising into the air. Was a beautiful sunny saturday as I remember. Was also very lucky it was this weather because many people weren't home at the time of the explosion. Would be much much worse when it would have been cold or rainy weather and everybody was at home...
"How could they pass inspection only a few weeks earlier?"
Easy, companies always know when inspection day is. They closed the doors they needed closed, tidied things up, and the extra fireworks and shipping containers were probably loaded onto trucks and driven somewhere else for several hours until that evening after the inspectors left. This is how many companies pass inspection. On regular work days things are not the same as during inspection days.
I've worked for many companies and none of them know when a inspections is coming
@@lesprentice583 Everyone I worked for always knew. We would spend a week or two getting everything ready, putting toxic and flammable materials that are sitting around in proper storage locations, things like that. The inspectors always found a few minor things they said we should change. Once and inspector said we needed to fix this escape hatch because it extremely difficult to open. I put gas pneumatic cylinders, aka gas spring lift, so the hatch opened easily even in a power outage. The thing is, that escape hatch had been that way for 20 years. In those 20 years if there had been a fire blocking the stairway, only the healthiest men would have been able to climb that ladder and lift the hatch enough to escape. Women and fat guys would have died of smoke inhalation.
@@BrettonFerguson You might now a time frame when they will come but they never give you an exact date and time.
@@lesprentice583 Well the managers of some companies know what day the inspection will be. Do you perhaps think there is zero corruption in the government? I assume somebody bribes somebody at the regulatory office. All I know is the boss would have a list of things to be done by a certain date for the inspection, and miraculously when that date came the inspectors would show up.
I myself worked in a job where we would know the exact day two weeks in advance and a friend of mine in the food industry was also notified a few days in advance. Both companies cleaned up their shit a bit for the inspection and then went back to breaking every rule the day after.
I feel this channel isn't really Fascinating Horror, so much as Fascinating Failure Analysis.
More like Fascinating Fcukups.
The horror is the fact that so many of those to blame for death and tragedy got off scot free.
At the beginning there was more horror, now its more fucked up imo because of how real it feels. Like a bunch of hikers vanishing and maybe aliens is interesting, but corporate negligence causing mass death is... yikes.
The channel you’re losing for is Bedtime Stories.
Combines my favorite things: root cause analysis, process improvement, and morbid curiosity.
"In the end, nobody faced any consequences" should be the channel name at this point
Nah
Pretty much!😔
Plenty of people faced the consequences of these disasters, just not the people responsible for them.
''Fascinating Impunity''
Can anyone help me understand how this is possible?
I understand many cases take place between the 60s and 90s but could you just be grossly negligent and killing dozens and dozens of people at that time and just walk away with like a small fine?
I still remember hearing about the incident from my brother. He's a train conducter and was just passing through Enschede when it happened. It was so enormous, the whole train shook, even though it was almost 2km away!
Enschede doesn’t have a train track going through Enschede, it’s the end station for all incoming lines.
@@DrAugurk well partly past the area of the exploision. Sorry i didnt say that but i didnt think it wad necesairy for my comment 🙄
@@DrAugurk There is now a train track going from Enschede to Gronau. Not sure if it was in operation back in 2000 but I think it was.
Today I learned that everyone on RUclips is a train expert
@@rougelazer8278 I just learned that I am too from the short course I just took! 👍 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Firefighters where killed almost instantly."
I don't like the "almost" 😟
Even a few seconds of burning alive is too much.
I just hope they went into shock and didn't mentally process what was happening to them.
seems the killed part might even be worse
@@jburch8583 😁 true
@@jburch8583 -- Seems you bring up a very valid point.
"In the end, though there was much criticism of all parties involved, few people faced any real consequences."
You know the old saying: victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
I didn't, but now I do. That's perfect
Yeah never heard that before, but I like it
(Video game sound effect) New Saying Added To Lexicon!
Just give him the money, Sunshine
Negligence, the prime suspect of all these terrible disasters.
You have no idea how many times I've heard the "well nothing has happened yet, why would it go wrong in the future?" Argument and I always cringe when they say it. Sure, there is a good possibility nothing will ever go wrong and everything will be fine, but why in the world would you want to take that kind of a risk?? There is a reason for rules and a reason they call them risks, not because you are 100% going to die, but because you have a significant chance to. It is not even that hard to just be safe, honestly. People are just too lazy when it comes to that kind of stuff I guess.
Yes. There's always a slack regulator lurking in the background.
@gofa cureself That AND greed.
It's always negligence or greed
@@foreverpinkf.7603 is just talking to you and I said no problem
If I have learned anything from you, it’s that cutting corners in order to save money will result in everyone dying
And yet . . . they still keep doing it :(
Yeah.. but money
May or may not result. What is guaranteed however is it will save costs. And that's what the consumer wants and chooses. Everyone virtue signals on the internet. But when push comes to shove they'd prefer cheap crap made in sweatshops.
@@dieZauberfloete Countless people have also moved out of expensive places. Of course the ones that are left love it because they can afford it.
@@dieZauberfloete LMAO, a swiss. You're so privileged you have no clue what the avg non 1st worlder goes through.
Me at work: *Staring off into space*
*In my head*: "On the 13th of July 2021, Tom Davies made a mistake that would sadly cost his life and injure several others........."
Me at work: Where's the health and safety booklet?! Check everything!!..........
Every time I'm about to do something stupid or try to cut corners, I hear the music starting.
🤣
Me from the year 2040: Ah yes if only Tom hadn't been so negligent. 😞 RIP to all lives lost that day.
The best safety crew to hire are fans of this channel. XD
@@NoArtisticLimitation 🤣
I remember this all too well. I was 16 years old, and in the hospital in Almelo (a neighbouring town). I had just had my appendix removed and I was recovering on the 5th floor. I spotted the plume of smoke, and after a little while a trauma helicopter started flying to and from the hospital I was in. I turned on the local news and was horrified by what was on. The nurses called my mom and had her pick me up, as they needed my bed and I could recover at home.
When my mom was coming up to get me, the hall of the hospital started filling up with wounded and bleeding people. One man grabbed her by the arm, sobbing, as he didn't know where his wife and kids were. How I got out of the hospital and into the car is a blur. The entire region of Twente still remembers this event very well.
In later years, I have visited the site and the memorial, and it's very impressive. I never liked fireworks as a kid, and I was very much done with them after seeing that plume of smoke and that trauma helicopter making trip after trip after trip.
I never thought I'd ever hear you say "on the 13th of May, 2000". This hits literally too close to home. I was eleven years old and I lived less than 8km (5 miles) from this exact spot at the time. I remember seeing the biggest cloud of smoke I'd ever seen and I have never heard more firetrucks and ambulances on a single day since then. It's a dark page in our history.
“We have a spotless safety record by carefully sticking to safety rules. Let’s ignore those in the future.”
I am getting a bit fed up how nobody seems to be really punished when there is obvious negligence.
It's ridiculous (and honestly infuriating) how common this mindset is though. It was the exact same thing with lockdowns. People were made to lockdown and isolate so the virus didn't spread. And then a bunch of people went: _"Look, the virus isn't even spreading, this lockdown thing is clearly unnecessary if no one is getting the virus. Let's go out and party."_
And then they all got sick.
Money talks 💰
Money rules. In so cal we have sooo many uneducated poor people, they will kill for a sand which. Gang stalking better make ti the best respected people in life. It’s insaaaaane
@@TheMrVengeance As they should. You can't stay locked down forever, and they said it was to "flatten the curve," though anyone with IQ that's a positive number can see that it's about control, not health.
@@MachineMan-mj4gj 🙄
Im sensing a trend with all disasters from watching this channel:
When an accident happens blame travels upwards…if the blame reaches the top no one gets punished and everything is swept under the rug. Same for all the nuclear disasters or other times negligence has caused the death of hundreds.
Like another commenter said:
“The road to safety is written in blood”
For anyone interested, the Enschede incident has actually been in the Dutch news recently. Parliament is trying to open a new investigation since the original investigation obviously got corrupted. A former member of the European Parliament is serving as a whistleblower for the original investigation, shedding new light on things they let slip in order to keep the government from owning any responsibility for the incident. However, the committee who would be in charge of the new independent investigation is also reluctant to possibly shed light on the government’s lack of oversight leading up to the incident, so Parliament is having a hard time getting the committee to open a new investigation. Not that this means anyone will finally be held accountable, but here’s to hoping. This article is in Dutch, but it explains the situation: www.google.nl/amp/s/amp.nos.nl/artikel/2387268-tweede-kamer-wil-onafhankelijk-onderzoek-vuurwerkramp-enschede.html
The road to safety is written in blood...? What is that supposed to even mean?
@@user-gj7lp5iz6k It takes a diaster like what happened in Enschede where people die (blood) for things (safety) to finally be regulated or laws passed/changed. It shouldn't be this way and it shows how money/power (and therefore corruption) is above human lives.
@Albert Strauss the lowley worker should be punished if they were the proxemite cause and went against the standard procedures. Almost all of these incidents are caused by upper management trying to cut corners and save a penny
@@user-gj7lp5iz6k IMO, saying, "The rules of safety are written in blood" would be a bit more logical. After all, how does one write the road of safety? Write the road?
~ Cheers
And yet another mark in the file of “all safety regulations are written in blood”
Yup. Humans will not do what's right, unless they are forced to. No matter what.
I mean, what's the worst that could happen putting houses adjacent to an explosives depot!?
What a bizarre thread.
So basically people are supposed to be psychic on everything? Account for every potential incident?
If that was the case people would say that we were trying to wrap the planet in bubblewrap.
@@WillmobilePlus They built a bunch of houses next to, essentially, a giant pile of black powder and then didn't bother storing the powder properly. You need to be psychic to see why this is a bad idea?
@@gentlemanvaultboy8671I'm talking more about the idea that there is something fundamentally askew that safety regulations come about mostly in hindsight.
If building houses next to a fireworks factory, that was once isolated, was that obviously a dumb of an idea at the time, people would have not done it, even if we in hindsight, we look at these people as being dumb as rocks for doing it.
Look at how how we have homes built next to gas stations today, with no thought of the fact that a massive gas bomb is sitting right underground next to them. We just assume they are 100% safe, and because we haven't had a neighborhood go up by one exploding, it must be ok.
Or even go further and look at how many places are built around airports that were once alone in the middle of the country 30 years ago.
“Meanwhile, the Dutch government started a huge program of reform related to the handling of fireworks“.
A little late for those killed and injured and made homeless
Better late than never I suppose..
I love how the screen goes black and the music stops when he talks about the human cost of the tragedy. It's so minimalist and respectful. So tragic and horrifying. Truly amazing work.
Thank you for covering this. My sister lives in Enschede and had an art studio on this industrial complex. She was supposed to be there that day, but her work asked her to cover for someone. Her studio and all her art got destroyed. Of course, that is nothing compared to the lives that were lost. I still lived with my parents on the other side of the country, and i remember when we went and visited soon after, so many houses had lost all their roof tiles, even miles away from where it happened. It was such a weird sight. Very surreal
Both my father in law and my mother in law, together with my partner, used to live near Enschede when this happened. They told me that they could feel the shock going through the ground. A mutual friend used to work at a hospital when it happened and it has been one of the most traumatic shifts he ever worked. It's still talked about as the biggest tragedy to ever happen in that region.
Thanks for sharing!!
Very true, I am from Enschede. I hope your family and friend are okay now!
No one knowing which department is responsible and to blame in cases like this is so Dutch it almost hurts...
Was rushing to comment the same! Je was me voor! :D
The same happened recently with the "toeslagenaffaire" which caused people to become homeless and some even committed suicide. No-one really took responsiblity for those people losing their means of existance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_childcare_benefits_scandal
Just hetzelfde hier in België, the dutch doesn't fall far from the tree
@@Ozymandias1 Mark Rutte zal t nooit doen in ieder geval! En we gaan gewoon opnieuw massaal voor de vvd kiezen? Zijn mensen nou echt zo stom en haast…. Volgend alsof ze een lobotomie hebben gehad?
@@fluffy-fluffy5996 Hahaha grappig dat je dat nou net zegt, wou dus iets zeggen onder het mom van "kunnen we vvd stemmers die nu alsnog klagen over de overheid verplicht een lobotomie geven?" maarja, volgens mij heb je überhaupt al een lobotomie gehad moeten hebben om VVD te stemmen
I remember this disaster very well. It also made headlines in Germany, because Enschede is very close to the border and German firefighters and rescue workers helped to fight the blaze and with the rescue efforts. The Enschede explosion also prompted German authorities to take a closer look at fireworks factories and storage facilities in Germany. Finally, let me compliment you on pronouncing Enschede correctly.
His pronunciation is a little off, but it’s impressive anyway
Ironic. The photos of the aftermath look like something the Germans would have done to the neighborhood a few decades prior, and this time they were rushing in to help fix things.
@Lala Emm That's what I meant , dear. Please look up the definition of "irony" before you needlessly go off on someone else.
I would think in Germany it could also be a little awkward cause just a few years earlier there was a disaster in a German town of the same name. A massive train crash that killed over 120.
@@MrMarinus18 Almost the same name. The train crash was in Eschede, the explosion in Enschede. But yes, it's easy to get them mixed up.
Thank you so much for covering this!
I was a teen at the time, living in the town of hengelo nearby and we could all hear the huge bang. We were in the garden because it was a lovely sunny saturday and we could eventually clearly see the huge black cloud. We first thought there was a fire at the old pump factory (no longer in use) a few streets behind our house but pretty soon (even without mobile phones) stories came pouring in about what had actually happened. I had a couple of friends who were affected but luckily were uninjured. It was truly awful. 😢
Elderly were also very shocked because it looked so much like the damage they saw before during WWII.
I think the victims did receive some compensation money too from the government in the end 🤔
My first thought on the situation was "why would they build a fireworks facility inside an urban area" but sounds like the urban area came to them. Ah, progress
Over urbanization is a huge problem here, sadly at the cost of nature most of the time. Which is a shame because we have lovely nature
Take some time to look up Lockheed Martin's weapon facilities. Most of them are in the middle of high density areas. Universal Studios' newest theme park project, Epic Universe, is being built on one of Lockheed's former missile testing ranges in downtown Orlando. Lockheed's Hellfire missile guidance system is built less than a mile from the high school I attended.
@@SkunkApe407 Well, the guidance system is not explosive so no need to worry.
Reminds me of the great anime film Pom poko .
Unlimited immigration is "progress" too, though. They have to live somewhere ;)
I remember this on TV. I'm still amazed how relatively few people died because of this. Especially seeing the giant crater and a complete neighborhood just being gone.
Het was een zonnige zaterdag. Veel mensen waren aan het wandelen. Spelen. Of op bezoek bij anderen. En niet thuis. Puur geluk
If it had been at night or on a weekend it prob would've been in the hundreds
@@mattzr1550 it was saturday.
Many people must've gone away for a relatively safe distance to watch the scene after the initial fire started. All the fumes, heat and sounds must've been bad enough. It's lucky the explosion occurred after many hours of the initial fire .
They fled their house because of seeing that the fire was so close and the smaller explosions.
Shout out to those firefighters who lost their lives. They're the real heroes.
Amen.
Rip a shout out what are u a dj or radio jockey
The firefighters that survived are real heroes as well mind you.
@Frank Marano To me it sounded like he said that the ones that died were the real heroes.
Heroes real heroes heeeerooos heros real real heroes alive dead words.
"Despite this, the site passed a safety audit. How could this be possible?"
Someone got paid off. Gross but it happens a lot.
"These are not stored properly."
"Oh yes, we know, it's only temporary for maintenance of the other site, we'll move it back on the 14th."
This disaster shook the Netherlands to its core and together with the fire at Café de Hemel in Volendam, started a large debate on safety when it comes to fireworks. Thanks for covering this!
In the past week or so I've binged everything Fascinating Horror has to offer. Now my RUclips knows I'm interested in tragedies, and keeps recommending me different channels. But I don't click on any of them, scared that they won't be nearly as respectful and well researched as FH is. So thanks, FH, for both making me an instant subscriber and scaring me off from your competition. Great vid as always :)
Pretty much all the people that cover aviation disasters are extremely respectful, so you could start there. Some of them err too far on the side of caution and perhaps omit interesting but somewhat disturbing details, but time is finite and incident reports are thick, so all of them have to pick and choose what to talk about.
Dark History and Plainly Difficult are two channels that i love
@@raylenhawk8562 And Brick Immortar
I know this is 10 months old and I wouldn't be shocked if you never saw this, but I have to say it because it's very important. You've probably seen Mr. Ballen in your recommendations (if you haven't, go look him up) and I would recommend watching him and not being scared of him not being respectful. He's on the same level as this guy, I PROMISE you. Like I could not promise harder. Eleanor Neale is also a good youtuber to watch. She's also very respectful. My point is not to be scared off just because you think no one else is gonna be as respectful as this dude, because I swear that is not true. There may not be many respectful people, but there's definitely some really good ones.
@@lisachiappetti6092 I agree I absolutely love Mr Ballen's content and the way he narrates.
I find it bizarre that the company business grows and grows, but they can't spend any of that money on a warehouse and instead pack 180 tonnes of fireworks into an 18 tonne space. An accident waiting to happen due to greed, it seems.
It's always about profit.
every major disaster in human history comes down to either ignorance or someone trying to save 100 bucks
@@andrewkuebler4335 often it is about bureaucracy as well
@@David-bf6bz It's always about profit and bureaucracy.
_"An accident waiting to happen due to greed, it seems."_
Reality is a bit more nuanced however. As stated in the video, a few weeks before the disaster, the factory received an approval of the local fire department as part of an extension of their license provided by the municipality. For approvals like these, the fire department does (or should do) an investigation onsite.
I was living in the Enschede area and remember this vividly. The cloud of smoke was visible from a distance of over 30km
And the fire engines of towns from 3 provinces as well as from the German province of Nordrhein-Westfalen... The seemingly endless stream of sirens!
@@JariB. my poor ears
Ja man, kon t vanuit almelo ook nog zien 😶
@@DB-cx6uc ik was in Borculo (Hambroekplas) op dat moment
I remember the day, I saw the cloud from Harderwijk. (Driving home from Walibi.)
It's especially frustrating knowing that they started out scrupulously concerned about safety but became complacent over time.
Complacency is a silent killer.
As a Dutch guy that lives near this area, I have ALWAYS wanted a video like this to exist.
My dad is one of those people that noticed smoke in the sky.
I'm so glad for this. Thankie homie :)
For some reason, I totally didn't expect this one to be featured on one of my favourite channels these days, but awesome to see you covering this sad event too! I remember this one well, I live some 30Km from the epicenter of the explosion and went to college there. The school I went to still had damage in the form of a tear in the walls, caused by a massive block of concrete that slammed into the building (from over a kilometer away).
I don't remember it since I was too young, but my mom remembers being annoyed that Eurovision was interrupted and the Dutch entry had to withdraw. She didn't realize at first how bad the disaster actually was.
I've noticed a common theme among these videos. Almost never does anyone pay any real legal consequences and when they do it's nowhere near fit for the crime.
In China, when there's an egregious case that gets the public mad, the CCP ends up executing or giving a harsh punishment to those responsible (or scapegoated).
But greed and/or corruption keeps companies flouting safety/environment guidelines. The threat of a life sentence or execution doesn't seem to matter. Profits always win.
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 And like you say, it's not necessarily those actually responsible, but someone scapegoated. I could easily imagine scenarios where the high-up people cut corners in the name of profit, and corrupt government inspectors/officials let it slide. Then when something happens the whole incident gets blamed on some lowly employee who, carrying out orders from those above or doing what they have to do given the circumstances created by those above, "causes" the incident. That person gets blamed, punished, executed, solving the angry public's thirst for blood, even though those actually responsible get off free. This is the issue I see in many cases, the public doesn't understand a nuanced view of what happened and why, the story leading up to it, who's more justifiable to blame, but they still want to see some sort of punishment doled out, usually on some conspicuous or obvious person, without understanding the situation - then once this is done move onto the next piece of outrage whether or not those responsible were held accountable or anything done to actually remedy the situation. Who the blame is on is easily manipulated by those in power. Though I have seen the other way, a CEO being blamed for the actions of an individual, or things that are just unfortunate incidents. That United Airlines incident where the guy got dragged off the plane, everyone immediately demanded the United CEO resign. But in reality he wasn't to blame in any way - mostly it was the victim's actions to blame, and the TSA, maybe some of that flight's crew. Minimal to do with the airline, which wasn't even United but another company operating under the United Express name by contract. So in short, don't jump on the outrage bandwagon, learn the whole story before demanding any heads - much less who's - roll. And likewise we need to re-focus our criminal justice system as that - a justice system - rather than a vengeance system as it often feels like.
That's the true horror of all this. Sure, the deaths, the destruction, and the injuries are part of it but the real horror is the fact that, even if it is the fault of the government ignoring rules and regulations, no one is compensated for it.
Only when something goes drastically wrong will humanity learn from it.
...who's to say this flaw in our learning could end our own race, the last lesson we'll ever see being an apocalyptic consequence of governments screwing up?
A nice and detailed video! A quick note: the housed were already there around the sight when it openend. Enschede was and still is a industry city. In the past, it had big textile factories. Those factories built neighborhoods around their companies for their workers. This is why a lot of neighborhoods had industry zoned land slab dab in the middle. Therefore, these companies could exist amongst housing. Laws have since been changed
No one ever seems to ever face any REAL
consequences for their actions in so many of your videos, no matter how high the injury or death toll. It’s really a disgrace 🤬
Why do the people accountable always get short sentences? This seems to be a very common occurrence in your videos
i suspect the answer is money.
most of the time the people who own/oversee these kind of businesses are pretty wealthy (compared to the normal/average people). so either they pay someone off to get away with almost no punishment. or they use that money to hire lawyers who know how to work/manipulate the system.
it's a sad truth that the more money/power someone has the less likely that person is to get (fairly) punished for his/hers crimes.
Sry to say in this case you're actually wrong the owner already applied and asked to move the facility he knew how many fireworks there were and as the fire started he told the fire department to evacuate everyone in the surrounding area and the look up the footage crowds watching and there is a bigger story that just recently came out it wasn't greed that caused it
The dutch justice system isn't one for punishment, but for reduced recidivism. Add to that the burden of proof is so rigid that judges often refuse to convict for violations that aren't proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
As in this instance, so much of the physical evidence got destroyed in the blast, only surviving documents could be used and documents are easily adjusted to suggest no wrongdoing.
I'll remember that when you make a mistake
Money, the rich don’t get punished
One I actually remember happening. My grandmother lived in the city when this happened - she was fine - and I remember constantly waiting for updates on what was going on.
I've seen videos of the Enschede fireworks accident and I'm surprised more weren't killed, what an awful accident though
It’s nothing short of a miracle. It was a very hot day, and a lot of people were stood outside watching the smoke/fire.
Yes! Especially the firefighters, they were the ones closer to it.
Man this feels like yesterday, funny to see your vid pop up. I remember being at a family birthday party and an uncle calling out to turn on the tv after having had a phonecall from a coworker. The room went silent for the next hour as the situation unfolded. To this day, the disaster is still brought up every year as our country starts to move away from consumer-legal fireworks in an atempt to stimy injuries, fatalities and damage to (state)property occuring each year around NYE.. good video, love the channel ✌️
Something I always love about your videos that I don’t normally see pointed out is that you always have full captions available right away. That’s a great bit of accessibility work that not everyone does, so thank you! Keep up the great work!
Wrong.
I think I would blame local politicians more than the company. Residential structures around a fireworks factory that used to be in an open field? I mean, come on...
Thats just not really a thing here in the netherlands, especially when it's such a big event that happened. Especially Not in the 90's or early 2000's, these kind of things don't get placed with local politicians thats more of a recent thing and than still would be picked up by the higher ups in goverment
That's probably why there were only light sentences ? .
@@ottosump3356 Yeah, prison sentences in the netherlands are pretty much almost always short . You don't really go above 25 years. As my parents like to say: you better murder someone, than steal some candy. Because they would be more lenient😅
I mean, why not both?
_"Residential structures around a fireworks factory that used to be in an open field?"_
It used to be an open field until around 1890. That's the decade that the neighborhood was builr around some textile factories in that area. This is a mistake in the video.
As always, excited for this every Tuesday morning!
Same :)
Wait…what…is it Tuesday? Oh crap! I thought it was Monday, I think I need to get a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates? 😂😂😂😂
@@mattscudder1975 Uh oh. Are you in trouble?
I'm sure you'd be just as excited if it happened to you or your loved ones . :)
@@icantthinkofaname5986 I’m excited for the videos, not the events that happened, Karen.
I remember seeing the smoke rising from my garden when it happened. I live 20 - 30 miles from Enschede across the border, so it was a pretty big issue sround here for the years after it happened
Honestly this channel does it best for me
Its always a safe bet watching FH because he never shows distressing audio or video, only pieces from before and the aftermath (if he does show footage of the event itself, it never has gore or active death, which is very nice for more sensitive audience)
He recounts everything factually, detailing those involved, the events leading up to the disaster, how they unfolded, and the fallout without getting into more sensitive details. Even discussing the outcomes and impacts from when the dust settles, like accountability or law changes.
Plus, he talks about lesser-known disasters from way in the past, small communities, or simply not discussed enough from all around the world. There's always something new to hear about
Instead of trying to disturb, he tries to educate on disturbing matters. It's such a great channel and I'm always looking forward to uploads! :)
I very much appreciate the history and content this channel produces. Quoting both meters and feet for measures is very much appreciated as well. Thank you.
I'm from the Enschede area and I know quite some people who have been traumatized by the explosion. They often have no childhood pictures left and whenever they hear a bang, they're very anxious.
I remember seeing the smoke from dozens of miles away. Such a sad incident at the tail-end of a century.
Would you ever consider covering the Bradford City fire? It keeps coming up on safety courses I attend.
Urggghhh, one of the companies i worked for made us sit through the entire video including people on fire running across the field.
@@weerwolfproductions jeez, mine very purposefully cut out before they get to that point
@@weerwolfproductions jfc that's traumatizing... I can only imagine how bad it was for people watching the chaos unfold in person.
I was really young when this happened, but I will never forget hearing about it, sadly this wasn’t the only fireworks disaster we’ve had. A much smaller firework (a sparkler) was the cause of a large fire in a cafe in Volendam a year after the Enschede disaster, killing many young people who were celebrating the new year.
This channel is both fascinating and horrifying! I’ve been binge watching all your videos the past two days. The only negative is that it’s absolutely infuriating hearing about the choices a lot of these people made. So many lives lost and traumatized basically because of greed/ego.
Me: It’s almost 2:30am, I should probably go to bed.
RUclips: There is a new Fascinating Horror video.
Me: I can sleep when I’m dead.
320 for me😭‼️
5:20 in the morning :,)
4:00 am. I don't need sleep, I need Fascinating Horror content
Lol same
Seriously, go to bed. Insomnia isn't funny.
I was wondering when this topic would show up. I actually live in Enschede and went through this disaster.
I was just about to start my final school exams that following week. My school was actually quite close to the blast zone; just a street or two over buildings were completely destroyed. It blew out basically all the windows in our gym, so we had to take exams at a different school in the city. Everyone passed.
I can still recall every detail of that saturday. I started off buying a paper, since I was actually featured in an article about the upcoming exams. I got home and suddently heard a bang. Walked outside our front door and looked towards the area of the explosion. At first we thought it was a plane crash or something, but then we noticed the fireworks. As I was standing there, the second blast happened. Much, much bigger than the first. We were only about a mile or two away from ground zero. It was so powerful, it actually knocked me back against the house and dislodged some windows in our street.
Soon after it was clear we were in an actual emergency situation. We followed the news, which basically told us that things might not be over quite yet. Firefighters were trying to keep the ammonia storage tanks from the beer brewery from exploding, they said. If that had happened... well, best not to think about that.
I personally didn't lose people, but an aunt and nephew did lose their home in the blast. My nephew actually was missing that entire day; he was home at the time and basically walked to another aunt's house halfway across the city. This was before everyone had cellphones, not that it would've done much good to call at that time. A classmate of my sister was one of the kids who died while sheltering in their home.
The cleanup took months; the images looked like a complete warzone. They rebuilt the entire area and it's very nice to visit. There is a small memorial there as well to remember the tragedy.
Pyrotechnics or fireworks have caused a number of fires in nightclubs and other structures. Places as diverse as Rhode Island, Thailand and China.
It happened again in the Netherlands only a few months later when small firework sparkling sticks caused a pub fire in the tourist town Volendam, where 14 kids were killed during New Years Eve celebrations and dozens were maimed by burning scars. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volendam_New_Year%27s_fire
These are still explosives, no TNT, but 18 tons of black powder aren´t a joke.
@@Ozymandias1 I think this would be an interesting topic for this channel as well.
One of my friends does urbex photography and I was helping him find an abandoned themepark/waterpark in Taiwan on Google Maps. To find out more, I decided to look up info as to why the park closed... It wasn't good. (Check Formosa Water Park Taiwan, also a good topic for this channel. Basically: colored powder + a spark + pool = lot of people with very nasty burns.) Edit: realise it's not actually fireworks that caused this, or at least, they're not sure. So it's not really on-topic, but still interesting.
This isn't even a new thing either.
In 1613 the original Globe theatre in London burned down after a cannon used for special effects misfired and started a blaze.
I have been binge-watching your channel for the past two weeks, it’s great stuff. Detailed, respectful and always so interesting - keep it up!
This channel was all I could think about during that Miami condo collapse
Warehouse C2? Boy if that doesn't sound like a bad omen.
Better than warehouse c4
Composition C2 preceded C4, but the fact that there was a C2 probably meant there was a C4 as well, which I think storing explosive materials inside a warehouse named after an explosive material was probably a poor choice.
I didnt know plastique was also called c2.
@@Drummerchef13 They're just designations for plastique compositions; the composition C series following comp. B and such,
ESPECIALLY it being right next to bunker K-boom.
We saw that even professionals can be careless around fireworks, in LA the police department detonated a bunch of fireworks in a neighborhood in South LA and injured 17 people.
“Professionals” HAAAAH!! I really hope you dont believe that!
@@brianpj5860
Well, indeed not 'professionals' in the sense they handle it in a professional manner, no. But certainly 'professional' in the sense that such people's job is handling fireworks or, explosives and general. Therefore, it is their profession... But I'm sure you get the gist as well as I got yours.
@@JariB. how can you live writing something with so many typos???
I know what you're talking about, friend. There's going to be a lawsuit. That's all I can say.
It reminds me of that video of a cop talking about gun safety at an American highschool and showing a gun to the pupils and then he said something like "I am a professional, I have been trained to use guns" and then he accidentily shot himself in his foot.
Omg, I've been suggesting this and you actually covered it? 😱 Awesome!!
Thank you for always taking the time to say both feet and meters when you are talking about distances
2:50 who the frick signed off on standard shipping containers as explosives storage - explosive storage requires blowout mechanisms.
Indeed. I was always under the impression that firework storage demanded very thick walls but a thin roof.
Omg I recently thought about this story and that you should make a video about that because it was a important piece of history in my country and the outside world had forgotten about it.
As someone from Canada, I never even knew this happened.:(
Dat had ik dus ook! Ik heb zelfs van de week nog geprobeerd te zoeken of de dit kanaal niet al een video had over Enschede!
Ik had dit een tijdje terug ook gesuggereerd. Blijkbaar als genoeg mensen ernaar vragen, gebeurt het
Ik had het ook al gestuurd per mail als suggestie, met onder andere ook de brand bij Café de Hemel in Volendam. Ik denk dat die en deze ramp erg veel te weeg hebben gebracht als het gaat om vuurwerk en veiligheid.
We (in Denmark) had a similar accident in Seest, when a fireworks factory caught on fire - one firefighter even died.
Having grown up just across the border, i somewhat remember that huge cloud of smoke in the distance. Truly a terrible thing...
I stumbled upon your channel about a week or so ago and I've been binge watching ever since. This quickly became one of my absolute favorite channels. Really outstanding work. I'm going to check my finances after this month and see if I can afford to become a Patron. If I can, I absolutely will. Totally worth it.
Thanks for another great video. I remember this disaster and the aftermath. I have seen numerous documentaries about it, but you still added new insights to my knowledge.
The company: man, we've been following all these dang rules and nothing has gone wrong!! Guess we can save some money & make some more by loosening up our restrictions!
*Huge explosion caused by lax following of safety rules*
The company: *surprised Pikachu*
I sometimes think lack of incidents actually makes things worse in the end. It's human nature to keep taking more and more risks until something happens. If you get lucky and nothing happens, you keep taking bigger and bigger risks until when something finally does happen it's a gargantuan catastrophe.
Pretty much. People don’t see the safety measures as the *reason* they’re doing so well.
Arrogance and complacency. BP literally believed that they were simply too good at their jobs to have an oil rig explode. And this was not some decision they made all at once. They kept adding little by little and became more concerned about their reputation as a reliable supplier. They simply got complacent and allowed one (quire legitimate) business concern become their primary focus. It is very rare for people in a business to deliberately and knowingly expose the public to a danger.
What happens is that there needs to be a 'safety culture.' The company started out with a strong safety culture but let complacency erode that culture away. And the worst people for ignoring safety rules are not management - they are the line employees. These are the people who take shortcuts, come up with unapproved "better ways" to do their jobs etc. If management is not 'walking around' and instead sitting in their offices - there is no enforcement of safety rules. (And all too frequently, they'll have no idea what's even going on.)
I forgot it was Tuesday until you uploaded, love the videos!
Well done, as usual. I always appreciate that you find a way to end things on a positive note.
Binged every single video on this channel over the past few weeks - I cannot applaud you enough, your videos are fantastic
I'm very happy that you covered this. I was thinking about asking for it. I moved around there a while ago, and I meet people who witenessed it. And a bonus is that you pronounced Enschede very well!
Great video, thanks!
Man, I remember this happening, back when I was in high school. It was one of the worst disasters of the decade in our country. The crater at the exact spot the explosion happened is there to this day. It's a small pond now, apparently.
The government branch I work at now is a regulatory organ that was actually created to prevent disasters like this one in particular, so it's interesting how its butterfly effect ending up affecting my life as well.
Great content, keep it up!
You might have been first comment (definitely one of the first!).
Fascinating (and horrifying, and informative) story, as always! And props to those brave firemen. 👏
But...but...what happened to your music?? 😔
EDIT: oh phew, it showed up again at the end!
I might have attachment issues... 😅
Like yesterday! It was an incredible explosion and felt very unreal, my parents were in a supermarket where a roof collapsed. I drove my car a few blocks away and the car came off the ground at the second explosion. It was horrible to see all those injured and death people on the streets. Everyone needed help after the explosion and it took long before rescue begun but this was an massive explosion and also for the rescue workers unreal.
7:00 The number of these stories that contain a phrase like "the site had passed a safety audit recently" is a tragically informative.
I applaud you for continuing to shine a light on these mistakes.
I remember it being all over the news when it happened. I was around 9 years old and even at that age, this news was hard to miss.
Very well made video of this! I was just 8 years old when this happened in my hometown, I couldn't believe my eyes. Multiple family members lived in this neighborhood but thankfully they were not at home when this took place but they did lose their homes. I still feel awful about the fact 22 people had to die for something that could have been prevented.
Great video, it’s definitely still in the minds of most Dutch people, every new year I hear at least one comment about the Enschede disaster.
Het allerbeste, man. 😁
Fijne dag
It all makes sense now. For years I've been hearing about the Enschede disaster, and thought: "It's not ENschede, but Eschede!" Because there was a train wreck in the mid-90s in Eschede, Germany, as far as I know the worst railway disaster ever to happen here, and someone I knew luckily survived with the whole of his family, but scars tell the story to this day.
Such a clear and distinct speaking voice - the only one I've ever seen not misquoted by Closed Captioning. Hooray ! Great job on the video, too. Horror is indeed fascinating.
I love that you are not a sensationalist, giving gory details and foul language to your fine videos. Just the facts in a creepy sort of way. Cheers from Ireland. ☘
Oh wow, never thought i'd see a video about something that happened in my home country
I saw one about Anne Faber recently, feels weird when they pronounce the name of Dutch cities
@Disneybabydoll I think so, yes. I disliked the video because of the clickbait picture with a red circle, as if there was something to be seen on the last picture she made of herself
They should do an item about the Hercules disaster at Eindhoven Airport.
Didn't expect this to unearth some memories, I kinda remember my Mama following this story on the news since Enschede is less than 2 hours away from us.
Negligence and corporate greed come to haunt us once again. Death and destruction for such pitiful things.
Hell, you could do an entire series on fireworks “mishaps.”
There’s probably at least a dozen potential episodes from the first half of 2021 alone.
My favorite parts of your discussions is the post-disaster deep-dive. Thanks man!
I love all your videos. It's nice when there's one that's about a recent event. It reminds us that we do need to still be aware of what's going on around us.
I was but 2 when it happened, but, living in the next town over (less than 10km from the factory itself) at the time, it left a far bigger impression on me than 9/11 ever did on me. But then- I heard and felt the boom, and, saw the smoke clouding overhead.
I was going to contact you on doing an episode on this, but here you are! Thank you for the effort!
State Regulators:"OK, you can store a few more but watch your capacity limit"
Jackass:"Stow one more crate than what they say, it won't kill us.."
As always love your presentation 👏
As long as people exist this channel will have content. This channel is great for learning accidents of the pass to prevent accidents of the future, one reason I think history is so important
I'm glad to see that sub count rising, what a great channel. One of my favorites!
I love the Dutch reaction to poor safety here and also in the design of their cities. Lots of children died in road traffic accidents during the 1970s, and now towns are planned around walking and cycling!!
This made me think of the Eschede train disaster. That would be a good one to make a video on.
I've been obsessively watching every single one of your videos. I didn't think there would be one that would hit so close to home though. As this is a disaster I've experienced first hand.
I was 12 when this happened, and I was playing cello at a large concert at the conversatory less than a kilometer away from the blast. The explosions could be heard and felt through the otherwise well isolated concert hall, followed by a stampede of panicking kids, luckily the worst tragedies in the building itself were a few damaged instruments. At first nobody knew what was going on and they tried to continue the concert. But after about 10 minutes we were informed about what had occurred. We were given information about where it had happened and the building was cleared without too much trouble.
My parents were listening to the performance and we met up. We were walking the streets, pretty much every large window was shattered. But we found our way to the parking garage and set off to head home. At that time my father was a major in the air force, stationed at the Enschede airbase. So he was well aware of the area. Figuring we would be able to avoid the blast area, we set off.
However, we were misinformed about where the explosion had taken place, and we instead went closer to the blast area (which we. People were roaming the streets, not knowing where to go or what to do, there were concrete fragments everywhere. I vividly recall an old man shouting and crying about war. But we got through it and went back home. The smoke cloud could be easily seen from my house (about 15 kilometers to the north).
My father was one of the people in charge of the facilities that, at least briefly, housed the remains of several victims at the airbase. Years later, he told me about his experience, and how he and others coped with the situation there. The worst story being someone trying to "return" the hat of a firefighter to their body, and my father having to correct them, pointing out that the hat wasn't just a hat, but also held the only remains that were found of another firefighter.
I know this channel is here for the story about the disaster itself. But the rebuilding effort is something to take note of as well. The area had to be completely redeveloped. But old inhabitants of the area were given priority if they wanted to have a house there. Which means that at least after the rebuilding, plenty of the residents in the area were ones that lived there before the blast.
The remains of the complex were purposely not demolished completely, and can easily be seen on google maps. There is a monument a few meters away. A quick google search for "Monument Vuurwerkramp Enschede" Should get you the exact location.
I know it is a small detail, but i love when channels section off the topics in the video. It gives me a great idea of the pacing of the video and i enjoy that
"Imported from aboard." Such classic. 😅 Great work! 👍