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Search companies play important role after Enschede disaster
Coming into action after a calamity occurred… Our staff will never get used to it. And as far as the Enschede disaster is concerned, we can only affirm that it surpassed all our previous experiences. It’s sad that as an expert company you have to leave for a disaster area like that, particularly because there were casualties this time, and because scores of families lost all they had in no time.
The recent catastrophe brought us a lot of work. As a specialised research institute Search Laboratories and Research – which has two fully equipped mobile laboratory and/or calamity units at its disposal – was called in for various measurements at the scene. Search carried out both asbestos investigations and measurements of other forms of pollution caused by the catastrophe. This resulted in, among others, extensive soil and debris investigations. After a preliminary inventory, Search was included into the disaster relief organisation as a supporting company for the following activities:
- Supporting the disaster relief staff
- Environmental support
- Carrying out soil investigations in the disaster area
- Instructing and supporting all parties concerned / victims and service staff
- Writing a ‘Strategic Plan’ for the decontamination and demolition work which was to be done
- Preparing the ‘Comprehensive Specifications’ to start work in the disaster area
Search played an important role in drawing up the ‘Strategic Plan’ for the complete decontamination of the so-called ‘inner ring’. In the mean time, the bureau’s specialists started work on preparing the demolition job. Eugène Janssen was, as a private person, assigned to be an advisor to the disaster relief staff, which by now had been renamed as the CUB-team (Co-ordination Implementation Inner Ring). We summarise Janssen’s experiences as follows:
As a director of Search, Eugène Janssen is quite down-to-earth in his evaluation of ‘Enschede’: “According to me, people acted quite decisively, making clear that a lot has been learned from the approach of the Bijlmer disaster (a plane crash on an apartment block in 1992). After a calamity like that, more than 1000 decisions have to be taken every day. If you then happen to take 20 wrong decisions, you did very well indeed. Because, after all you really took the right decision 980 times over. I remember calamities which required taking the same number of decisions, but as a result of endless debates they never got further than 20… That this went so well in Enschede has everything to do with mayor Mans and his team’s pragmatism… The co-operation with the experts from the insurance companies and the disaster cleaning and recovery (IGK) companies also was quite satisfactory. Well done! And I mean not just the tremendous work load with all this damage to buildings and home contents, but also the way they dealt with the tremendous emotions.
I think that how careful people’s emotions are dealt with is an important factor with this type of disasters. Having so many thousands of victims sometimes means that emotions get the upper hand over reason, and if you take the circumstances in Enschede into account, it has been handled well, according to me. It’s clear that the individual interests of all parties concerned (victims, authorities, insurances etc) are tremendous in this type of giant calamities. These people deserve to be complimented for the way they handled these matters.
People acted quickly, adequately and, in particular, humanely, avoiding endless discussions. All in all I should say that – apart from the misery the disaster caused for the victims – I still have good feelings about the way both administrators and the others concerned dealt with the consequences. And if any mistakes were made, which of course has happened, we would advise to evaluate things thoroughly after the calamity has been dealt with. I think it’s sensible to evaluate afterwards, just as we do in our team. It’s a good way to learn from your experiences. And it can provide important information for the future.”
En als er al fouten zijn gemaakt, hetgeen natuurlijk is gebeurd, dan adviseren wij om na afwikkeling van deze calamiteit een goede evaluatie te houden. Evenals datgene wat wij binnen ons team doen, denk ik dat het ook voor anderen altijd goed is om achteraf samen te evalueren. Dit, omdat juist op deze wijze lering kan worden getrokken uit ervaringen. Een belangrijk gegeven voor de toekomst".
In Enschede, Search provides support to the disaster relief staff, which includes the municipality of Enschede and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The company carried out soil investigations and asbestos and air measurements. In this way the disaster’s consequences to man and the environment are investigated.“Immediately after the calamity occurred, the RIVM (National Institute of Public Health and the Environment) made measurements, together with TNO (the Dutch organisation for applied scientific research)”, according to mr. Janssen. “Even then it turned out that the concentrations measured were below the MAC-values (Maximum Acceptable Concentration). That’s the reason why the area hasn’t been entered under asbestos conditions. The explosion did cause damage to materials containing asbestos which were incorporated in buildings, but in most cases the material involved was asbestos cement. At a single place in the disaster area, where an industrial site had been, we found loose asbestos as pipe isolation. However, the maximum exposure limits in air were never exceeded.”
“So there has never been any health risk to the people concerned. That’s why protection had no priority. Immediately after the disaster there were other priorities. After a few days a scheme was drawn up for the work in the area and the conditions under which the work should be done. After consulting ministries and other authorities concerned, it was decided to work under asbestos conditions. It was decided that light protection was adequate: disposable clothing and masks.”
Of course, communication and providing information was vitally important. “Every day, the available information was communicated to the people involved, “ Janssen says. All measurement results and reports have always been public as well. They had also been published on the Internet. Obviously priorities had been established as to supplying information.After a calamity of this size, a lot of things have to be communicated. If all of them are made public at the same time, you will increase the chaos even more and possibly create unnecessary anxiety.Because the asbestos concentrations were so low, it was decided not to make it known immediately that asbestos had been released. The victims in the disaster area received daily information letters immediately after the disaster; they still receive them on a weekly basis. For the media, regular press conferences were held – they still are. Initially there were several news conferences a day. Apart from that, press communiqués were distributed.”
Mr. Janssen takes the view that the Bijlmer disaster had influenced procedures in the wake of the Enschede disaster. “In Enschede you could notice that people had learned a lot from the Bijlmer disaster’s consequences. This was shown by the immediate measurements of airborne substances and by the registration of people who entered the disaster area. According to me, people in Enschede made a superhuman effort to manage things as well as possible. That’s why I have a lot of respect for mayor Mans and his staff of civil servants. The way Mans and his team were treated in various media during the days after the disaster sometimes set my teeth on edge, because both he and his team of civil servants deserve to be complimented on the decisive way they handled the consequences of this horrible inferno. You just go and try it!It’s also too simple to blame the Enschede municipality for the disaster. Of course, a factory like that shouldn’t be in a residential area, but in a densely populated country like the Netherlands it’s impossible to avoid calamities. However, we can and should try our best to reduce the risk as much as we can.”
Janssen continues to tell his story: “Probably, a lengthy procedure will now be followed before demolition of the buildings can start. Obviously there are many different parties involved, such as private persons, insurance companies, the municipality, housing corporations and commercial enterprises. Expectations are that the demolition of buildings can start in the beginning of January. Apart from that, we will run into ancient soil pollution when we are demolishing or rebuilding. The area used to be a textile industry site, which means that the soil is polluted in places. That’s why the soil at a number of sites will have to be decontaminated.” The most impressive compliment Eugène Janssen ever received personally with regards to Enschede, was during the evaluation meeting, when the municipality insisted that Search would stay with them in the future as well! By now, Search is closely involved in settling the damage claims in the disaster area, in writing a ‘Strategic Plan’, drawing up specifications and supporting demolition and decontamination work.
The recent catastrophe brought us a lot of work. As a specialised research institute Search Laboratories and Research – which has two fully equipped mobile laboratory and/or calamity units at its disposal – was called in for various measurements at the scene. Search carried out both asbestos investigations and measurements of other forms of pollution caused by the catastrophe. This resulted in, among others, extensive soil and debris investigations. After a preliminary inventory, Search was included into the disaster relief organisation as a supporting company for the following activities:
- Supporting the disaster relief staff
- Environmental support
- Carrying out soil investigations in the disaster area
- Instructing and supporting all parties concerned / victims and service staff
- Writing a ‘Strategic Plan’ for the decontamination and demolition work which was to be done
- Preparing the ‘Comprehensive Specifications’ to start work in the disaster area
Search played an important role in drawing up the ‘Strategic Plan’ for the complete decontamination of the so-called ‘inner ring’. In the mean time, the bureau’s specialists started work on preparing the demolition job. Eugène Janssen was, as a private person, assigned to be an advisor to the disaster relief staff, which by now had been renamed as the CUB-team (Co-ordination Implementation Inner Ring). We summarise Janssen’s experiences as follows:
Learned a lot
As a director of Search, Eugène Janssen is quite down-to-earth in his evaluation of ‘Enschede’: “According to me, people acted quite decisively, making clear that a lot has been learned from the approach of the Bijlmer disaster (a plane crash on an apartment block in 1992). After a calamity like that, more than 1000 decisions have to be taken every day. If you then happen to take 20 wrong decisions, you did very well indeed. Because, after all you really took the right decision 980 times over. I remember calamities which required taking the same number of decisions, but as a result of endless debates they never got further than 20… That this went so well in Enschede has everything to do with mayor Mans and his team’s pragmatism… The co-operation with the experts from the insurance companies and the disaster cleaning and recovery (IGK) companies also was quite satisfactory. Well done! And I mean not just the tremendous work load with all this damage to buildings and home contents, but also the way they dealt with the tremendous emotions.
I think that how careful people’s emotions are dealt with is an important factor with this type of disasters. Having so many thousands of victims sometimes means that emotions get the upper hand over reason, and if you take the circumstances in Enschede into account, it has been handled well, according to me. It’s clear that the individual interests of all parties concerned (victims, authorities, insurances etc) are tremendous in this type of giant calamities. These people deserve to be complimented for the way they handled these matters.
People acted quickly, adequately and, in particular, humanely, avoiding endless discussions. All in all I should say that – apart from the misery the disaster caused for the victims – I still have good feelings about the way both administrators and the others concerned dealt with the consequences. And if any mistakes were made, which of course has happened, we would advise to evaluate things thoroughly after the calamity has been dealt with. I think it’s sensible to evaluate afterwards, just as we do in our team. It’s a good way to learn from your experiences. And it can provide important information for the future.”
En als er al fouten zijn gemaakt, hetgeen natuurlijk is gebeurd, dan adviseren wij om na afwikkeling van deze calamiteit een goede evaluatie te houden. Evenals datgene wat wij binnen ons team doen, denk ik dat het ook voor anderen altijd goed is om achteraf samen te evalueren. Dit, omdat juist op deze wijze lering kan worden getrokken uit ervaringen. Een belangrijk gegeven voor de toekomst".
Environmental investigation Enschede disaster
In Enschede, Search provides support to the disaster relief staff, which includes the municipality of Enschede and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The company carried out soil investigations and asbestos and air measurements. In this way the disaster’s consequences to man and the environment are investigated.“Immediately after the calamity occurred, the RIVM (National Institute of Public Health and the Environment) made measurements, together with TNO (the Dutch organisation for applied scientific research)”, according to mr. Janssen. “Even then it turned out that the concentrations measured were below the MAC-values (Maximum Acceptable Concentration). That’s the reason why the area hasn’t been entered under asbestos conditions. The explosion did cause damage to materials containing asbestos which were incorporated in buildings, but in most cases the material involved was asbestos cement. At a single place in the disaster area, where an industrial site had been, we found loose asbestos as pipe isolation. However, the maximum exposure limits in air were never exceeded.”
“So there has never been any health risk to the people concerned. That’s why protection had no priority. Immediately after the disaster there were other priorities. After a few days a scheme was drawn up for the work in the area and the conditions under which the work should be done. After consulting ministries and other authorities concerned, it was decided to work under asbestos conditions. It was decided that light protection was adequate: disposable clothing and masks.”
Communication and information
Of course, communication and providing information was vitally important. “Every day, the available information was communicated to the people involved, “ Janssen says. All measurement results and reports have always been public as well. They had also been published on the Internet. Obviously priorities had been established as to supplying information.After a calamity of this size, a lot of things have to be communicated. If all of them are made public at the same time, you will increase the chaos even more and possibly create unnecessary anxiety.Because the asbestos concentrations were so low, it was decided not to make it known immediately that asbestos had been released. The victims in the disaster area received daily information letters immediately after the disaster; they still receive them on a weekly basis. For the media, regular press conferences were held – they still are. Initially there were several news conferences a day. Apart from that, press communiqués were distributed.”
Respect
Mr. Janssen takes the view that the Bijlmer disaster had influenced procedures in the wake of the Enschede disaster. “In Enschede you could notice that people had learned a lot from the Bijlmer disaster’s consequences. This was shown by the immediate measurements of airborne substances and by the registration of people who entered the disaster area. According to me, people in Enschede made a superhuman effort to manage things as well as possible. That’s why I have a lot of respect for mayor Mans and his staff of civil servants. The way Mans and his team were treated in various media during the days after the disaster sometimes set my teeth on edge, because both he and his team of civil servants deserve to be complimented on the decisive way they handled the consequences of this horrible inferno. You just go and try it!It’s also too simple to blame the Enschede municipality for the disaster. Of course, a factory like that shouldn’t be in a residential area, but in a densely populated country like the Netherlands it’s impossible to avoid calamities. However, we can and should try our best to reduce the risk as much as we can.”
The future
Janssen continues to tell his story: “Probably, a lengthy procedure will now be followed before demolition of the buildings can start. Obviously there are many different parties involved, such as private persons, insurance companies, the municipality, housing corporations and commercial enterprises. Expectations are that the demolition of buildings can start in the beginning of January. Apart from that, we will run into ancient soil pollution when we are demolishing or rebuilding. The area used to be a textile industry site, which means that the soil is polluted in places. That’s why the soil at a number of sites will have to be decontaminated.” The most impressive compliment Eugène Janssen ever received personally with regards to Enschede, was during the evaluation meeting, when the municipality insisted that Search would stay with them in the future as well! By now, Search is closely involved in settling the damage claims in the disaster area, in writing a ‘Strategic Plan’, drawing up specifications and supporting demolition and decontamination work.
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