The fireworks that caused a devastating fire on a caravan camp on the Brestlaan in Eindhoven on Sunday afternoon, according to a neighbour, were thrown in by a group of children. An extremely out of hand prank, “but I think attempted murder is greatly exaggerated.”
The fire started on Sunday in the caravan at number 8, where the neighbour’s aunt lives. The neighbour herself lives at number 10. “When the fire broke out, I was in the car. My children called me completely in a panic. I have no idea how I got home, I felt it took an eternity.”
By the time they got back to camp, the fire had already spread to the caravans on either side at numbers 6 and 10. “Everything was ablaze and you can imagine how a wooden wagon is gone within half an hour. It is completely uninhabitable.” This also applies to her aunt’s wrecked car and that of her sister, who lives on the other side of the fire. “We’ve lost everything.”
Shortly after the fire, a video surfaced showing from her sister’s caravan how the fireworks were thrown inside. The images were taken by the friend of the girl next door who lives at number 6.
Still, according to the neighbour, he had nothing to do with the throwing. “In that video, people laugh at the fireworks, not at the fire that started after it.” She also denies that the fireworks were thrown from the caravan, as previously suggested by some local residents.
She believes the perpetrators who threw the fireworks were “a group of children from the neighbourhood. All of them about ten years old. It probably started as a joke, but we have lost everything.”
She is disappointed with the reaction of her aunt, with whom she has not had contact with for years. “Then they shout that it is attempted murder. Based on such a video. I think that is exaggerated.”
The neighbour hopes that the perpetrators will be caught quickly. “Then I can at least recover the damage from someone. We don’t get insurance with our cars, so we pay for all costs.”
Since the fire, the neighbour has been staying with her two children, aged 2 and 5, in a hotel that has been arranged by the municipality. “Although you can’t really call it that. I understand very well that the municipality can’t do anything about it, only that room is really too small for the three of us. And it smells foul.”
Source: Omroep Brabant
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
