Asva exhorts city council to take action: “Improve fire safety in temporary housing”
Student union Asva came to the Amsterdam City Council Chamber on Wednesday with a clear appeal: Take the fire safety of temporary housing more seriously. “We have not yet forgotten the plumes of smoke from Riekerhaven; we hope you haven’t, either.”
“Does the city want to wait until somebody dies?” For student union Asva the situation has reached a breaking point, it appeared Wednesday in the Amsterdam City Council Chamber. In particular, the major fire at the Riekerhaven Complex in Nieuw-West in the fall of 2022 is still fresh in the union’s memory. No fewer than 135 homes were declared uninhabitable; seven pets perished.
Tighten the rules
This led to the following demand on Wednesday: “Tighten the current rules on fire safety of temporary housing complexes.”
“Temporary housing is much less resistant to fire,” Asva president Izabella Voortman explained by telephone. By law, these houses, intended for students and status holders among others, must be able to hold back a fire for half an hour before the flames spread to other houses. Permanent houses, on the other hand, are subject to a one-hour limit. Strange, Voortman thinks, especially since “most temporary houses often remain in place for more than 15 years.”
Too often basic precautions are also lacking in temporary complexes, Asva observes, such as smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and clear escape routes. When the complexes, often container housing, are relocated in the interim, Voortman believes they should also be thoroughly checked to make sure everything is still in order. But, they say, “That very often doesn’t happen.”
2,500 new houses
The call for haste did not fall on deaf ears. “Everyone in the room very much agreed with us,” Voortman says. But there is also a lack of clarity. The city and the state are arguing over who is the appropriate administrative body to solve this problem, Voortman informs.
With the Amsterdam City Council’s plans for some 2,500 new temporary homes in mind, this issue has become particularly urgent for Asva. The union therefore hopes for a quick, happy ending. “We have not yet forgotten the plumes of smoke from Riekerhaven; we hope you haven’t, either.”
