On Thursday, a procession of two fire trucks, a bus with a ladder, an ambulance and an investigation team vehicle headed out to campus Woudestein. They received an automatic fire alarm from a detector in the F Building.

Damage

The fire was under control within half an hour. It was a small fire. After the fire was under control, an ambulance also parked on campus. Paramedics put two students on a ventilator because they might have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. The students did not suffer any injuries, according to a spokesperson of the Rotterdam Rijnmond Safety Region.

In the SSH-building behind the University Library, a residence on the second floor partially burned out. There is smoke and water damage in the apartments above.

The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, as is an estimate of the cost of damage repairs.

According to a university spokesperson, in addition to emergency responders, the campus real estate department and company emergency services were on site to assess damage.

fire f building 2
Image credit: Rateb Abawi

No toxic materials

Although the fire was quickly brought under control, the fire department required residents to remain outside the building for up to four hours to prevent further carbon monoxide poisoning and to do more measurements. No toxic substances or gases were found.