Large fire in Haren overnight, homes evacuated

Around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, a fire broke out at a small business park on the Emmalaan in Haren. Roughly a dozen homes were evacuated later in the evening.

Translation by Traci White

The fire appears to have started at Mango Mobility, which sells mobility scooters, and also destroyed their attached garage. Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the fire was deemed GRIP 1, which calls for additional emergency services to respond to the scene. RTV Drenthe writes that fire fighters from Eelde also responded to the blaze.

Shortly after 11 p.m., around a dozen homes were evacuated due to risk posted by the heat and smoke caused by the blaze. The Emmalaan is largely residential, and there are a number homes directly across the street from the small business park. An NL Alert was also sent to residents in the impacted area warning people to keep their windows and doors closed due to the smoke.

The Emmalaan and the Westerse Drift were shut down by police to create a cordon around the fire, and several ramps from the A28 motorway were temporarily closed due to the fire, which was clearly visible from the city of Groningen and across the provincial border in Drenthe. Brandweer Groningen tweeted that the fire was under control shortly after midnight, but added that fire fighters would remain on the scene for quite a while to ensure that all the embers had been extinguished.