VOLENDAM - National soul-searching in the Netherlands continues as the death toll from a New Year's Eve fire in a crowded bar rose by two, including a 13-year-old girl.
Ten young people are now known to have died after flames swept through the cafe at Volendam soon after midnight, bringing panic as some youngsters threw themselves from the third-floor bar and dancefloor in a frantic effort to escape.
With several young people still clinging to life with severe burns, Volendam's Mayor, Frank Ijsselmuiden, feared that the death toll might reach 17.
A list of the first nine to die showed that all were under 24 and included one boy aged 15 and another of 16.
The death of 13-year-old Liesbeth Buys underlines the extent to which parents in the small fishing community of 27,000 people, 20km north of Amsterdam, even considered teenagers as young as 13 to be safe at a celebration with older friends and relatives.
Under Dutch law minors can enter bars if accompanied by someone over 16, although they are not allowed to drink alcohol. These regulations, along with the cafe's safety standards and the use of fireworks, are all the subject of national debate as the scale of the tragedy sinks in.
The fire is thought to have been caused by a firework igniting Christmas decorations on the bar ceiling. Many of the more than 500 young people packed on to the dancefloor were wearing highly inflammable techno clothing.
Even if they had managed to find the fire exits, at least one was unusable, according to police sources. Rumours that as many as three more were blocked were circulating yesterday. However, it may yet emerge that no regulations were actually broken, and that the owners will escape prosecution.
The municipality of Edam-Volendam said it wrote to all restaurants and bars on November 30 instructing them to ensure that all decorations were sprayed with flame-retardants.
One Dutch newspaper claimed that the owner of the Het Hemeltje, or Little Heaven, cafe had admitted not doing so, but that was not confirmed yesterday.
Queen Beatrix, who talked with relatives of those who died, plans to visit victims in Amsterdam's AMC Hospital and the Deputy Interior Minister, Gijs de Vries, has promised an independent inquiry into the calamity.
- HERALD CORRESPONDENT
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