A major fire has reduced the distribution centre and head office of Van der Heijden Transport in Hapert to ashes. The fire broke out on Friday afternoon and continued to flare up over the weekend. Nevertheless, Van der Heijden resumed operations on Tuesday.
The very intense fire, which started while roofers were working, was difficult to extinguish due to a very high temperature in the distribution centre. The fire even spread to a fire engine, so the Ministry of Defence lent three crash tenders, fire engines with powder, foam and water.
Demolition work on the collapsed building has now started. This is accompanied by heavy explosions, according to the Eindhovens Dagblad, which means the surrounding area will experience smoke development and inconvenience for some time to come.
The company's services continue as normal despite the fire. Van der Heijden announced that it will simply be back on the road after the Whitsun weekend. "What a bizarre weekend. An absolute nightmare. Still we can hardly believe it. But we have to keep going. All weekend, a lot of parties worked very hard. Much is still uncertain and unclear. But the result of the hard work is that today, Tuesday 2 June, we will resume our transport services," the company writes.
The quick restart is partly due to help from companies in the region. The family business posted an appeal on scoal media for a logistics centre with an area of 30,000 square metres. This drew many responses. Van der Heijden Transport is now in talks with a number of parties. The head office also burned down, but the transport company is said to have already had 10 offers to set up an office somewhere else.
