A fire on New Year’s Eve destroyed the Vondelkerk in Amsterdam, a monumental neo-Gothic building on the edge of the Vondelpark. The fire was reported around 00.50 and broke out in the tower: the flames came out of the roof and, according to the rescuers, the main problem was the rain of sparks and fragments over a large area, which put nearby houses at risk. For fear of spread, the authorities evacuated several dozen homes and issued an alert inviting residents to close doors and windows due to the smoke and not to clog the emergency lines unless their lives are in danger. The area around the building was cordoned off and the police asked onlookers to leave due to the risk of collapse. During the intervention the structure collapsed: first pieces of the top fell, then the tower collapsed.
Building “no longer saveable”
The Amsterdam-Amstelland ‘safety region’, the public body that coordinates emergencies in the capital area, spoke of a building that was “no longer saveable”, with operations focused on containing the fire and protecting the surrounding homes. To supply the hoses, the firefighters also took water from a tank in the Vondelpark and, according to the NOS, operational support from a navy scale vehicle also arrived. Mayor Femke Halsema, present at the scene, described the fire as “terrible” and particularly distressing for those living in the adjacent streets. At the moment there are no injuries and the causes of the fire remain to be ascertained.
The Vondelkerk by PJH Cuypers
The Vondelkerk is located in Vondelstraat, in the Amsterdam-West district, and is one of the best-known projects by PJH Cuypers, the architect of the Rijksmuseum and Centraal Station. The tower, the dominant element of the building, has also had structural steel components over time: a previous version was destroyed in another fire in 1904 and was rebuilt in its definitive form in 1906. Inside, the liturgical and decorative equipment has been completed over time: the organ dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, the stained glass windows from the following years. The building is protected as a Rijksmonument, that is, a nationally protected historical asset.