The Volendam New Years fire was a café fire

Structure fire

A structure fire is a fire involving the structural components of various residential buildings ranging from single-family detached homes and townhouses to apartments and tower blocks, or various commercial buildings ranging from offices to shopping malls...

 in the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 town of Volendam

Volendam

Volendam is a town in North Holland in the Netherlands, in the municipality of Edam-Volendam. The town has about 22,000 inhabitants .- History :...

 on New Year's Eve 2001. The fire began early on New Years Day 2001 and caused the death of 14 young people. There were in all 241 people admitted to hospital., 200 of which suffered serious burns.

Fire

The fire took place in a building where three cafés were located.. On New Years Eve the cafés were packed with more than 350 young people between 13 and 27 years of age when a short blaze happened in the café De Hemel which was located in on the top floor after a sparkler hit christmas decorations which were hanging from the ceiling. The temperature in the room reached 400º Celsius (752º F). There was great panic and the heat, lack of oxygen and people falling over each made escaping especially difficult. There also were bars in front of the windows and there were too few emergency exits, all of which contributed to the high number of casualties.

The first report reaches the Amsterdam ambulance service CPA at 00:38 CET on 1 January. The first fire engine arrives at 00:46 CET.

Aftermath

The fire was questioned intensively by media and politicians. New rules were introduced for decorations in cafés, nightclubs and other venues. The owner and managers of the building were indicted for culpability. Only the owner was convicted to a conditional prison sentence and community service. The Mayor of Edam-Volendam

Edam-Volendam

Edam-Volendam is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland, consisting of the towns of Edam and Volendam, whose centres lie just 3 km apart.-Local government:...

and an alderman resigned their positions