Around 11:50 am, two major explosions shook a fireworks production facility. Onsite storage had been authorised for some 10 tonnes of fireworks classified for transport in Division 1.3 or 1.4, in two buildings located 20 m apart, one of which was a former bunker. The other newly finished building recently brought online was entirely destroyed; a 10 m x 5 m crater 2 m deep marked its spot. The bunker caught fire and small fireworks explosions continued all day long.

The closest buildings, located on the other side of the dyke, were heavily damaged: collapsed roofs, cracked walls, broken windows, etc. Damage could be observed up to 900 m away, and glass panes where shattered all the way to the city of Culemborg at a distance of 5 km. Considerable debris and strewn objects (bricks, concrete pieces weighing up to 20 kg, metal girders between 2 and 3 m long) were found within a 650-m radius. The force of the explosion was evaluated at 2 tonnes of TNT equivalent. One employee and one visitor to the plant were killed, 6 others injured. Total damages were estimated at €25 million.

Cleaning inside the storage units was ongoing at the time of the explosion. Could a fire have broken out prior to the explosions? The origin of this incident has remained unknown (a cigarette? static electricity? product instability? presence of powder on the ground reacting during the cleaning work?).

Subsequent to this accident, the following recommendation was issued by Dutch authorities: “Classification procedures are needed for fireworks, not only specific to their transport conditions but also distinct procedures relative to manufacturing, assembly and storage. The simple application of classification results for transport conditions to other operations, as currently practiced, must be rejected.”

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