A fire inside a residence at the asylum seekers centre in Ter Apel on Friday morning left nine people injured.
Translation by Traci White
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that staff on site evacuated the residents, and fire fighters were able to get the blaze under control quickly. A mobile medical team evaluated people on site, and nine people were transported to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The fire broke out in a housing unit on an upper floor on the grounds of Ter Apelvennen, which houses the asylum seekers centre and deportation facilities. The Groningen fire department wrote on Twitter that two fire trucks had responded to the fire and that was under control by 4 a.m.
The Ter Apel asylum seekers centre was also the focus of an investigation this year after dozens of employees reported falling mysteriously ill in recent years. Although there are reports that soil at the site, which used to be NATO facility and dumping ground, was contaminated, researchers concluded that staff symptoms were caused by poor ventilation in one of the staff buildings.
