Au feu, au feu...

Yesterday, the building in front of my office burnt... It is the worst fire ever in a dutch university according to the news but fortunately no one was hurt. The fire started in the coffee machine around 9:00 at the 6th (top) floor and the building was rapidly evacuated. No one panicked, it was difficult to imagine that such a small fire would grow so fast. But there was a lot of wind yesterday, so the fire propagated rapidely through ventilation systems. The fire seemed under control at 16:15, just when I was going home. But as I was walking in a corridor there was a big noise (a soft one in my ears since I was inside thick walls): a part of the building collapsed. The smoke suddenly increased, and I went back to see: in less than 15 min the floors that were spared (4th floor untill ground floor) went in flames... Next to me the architects (it is the Bouwkunde , Faculty of Architecture that burnt down) were in shock: all the models, books seemed lost. I heard them tell about precious chairs (there was an exhibition of chairs from famous designers planned in two days). The whole building was destroyed and is now said to be in danger of collapsing. The chairs (located in a wing at ground floor) could be saved but the library is still not reachable.

Today, there were still persons looking, stopping on their way with bicycles, taking pictures. It made me think about how impressionable we are, and how powerless we feel in front of desasters. Good lesson.

view on the burning faculty, taken from our lab