Just before noon on Thursday, explosions from a gas leak in the centre of Ostend saw three people heavily wounded, including a firefighter and a policeman.
Works were being carried out on the corner of Christinastraat and Ooststraat to completely renovate the street, with several large excavators at work. While placing sheet piling which keeps soil and water beneath the road surface in their place, a crane operator hit a gas pipe with one of the sheets.
Shortly afterwards, workers reported the smell of gas. The contractor on duty immediately notified the emergency services at 11:19. Both the police and fire brigade rushed to the site.
But before the leak could be sealed, a heavy explosion took place. Shortly after another explosion followed, with flames several metres in height and a huge cloud of smoke in the city centre. The resulting blaze was only extinguished hours later.
Casualties and destroyed homes
Three victims were seriously wounded: a 45-year-old firefighter was reportedly blown away by the pressure wave. He has since recovered. One police officer is in hospital with severe burns but it was said that his condition was stable last night.
A woman was also taken to hospital with severe burns after being hit by a fireball. She is said to be a supervisor of children with disabilities,' according to Ostend mayor Bart Tommelein. ''She was working in a restaurant where people with disabilities help serve. It's all the more painful that such a thing happened just there."
The blast shook the foundations of houses in the area. An apartment building, on the corner of the two streets where the explosion occurred, suffered major structural damage but miraculously there was nobody injured inside. It was later revealed that between 15 and 20 buildings had been badly damaged. Several have already been declared uninhabitable and a few are at risk of collapse.
Crane driver questioned
The driver of the crane that hit the pipe has 25 years of experience and is working for a Roeselare-based company. He made a detailed statement to the police and has not been charged.
"He was in shock after the event,'' his lawyer said. ''He is keeping himself available and cooperating fully. He and his colleagues had taken all the necessary safety measures. They maintain that they did not commit any wrong acts and worked according to a detailed plan."
Since 2014, it has been compulsory to request plans showing what pipes are in the ground before public excavations start. "We are obliged to enter our gas and electricity pipelines in the KLIP system (Cable and Pipeline Information Portal), which was also done correctly for this pipeline," spokesman Björn Verdoodt of grid operator Fluvius told Radio 1.
"According to our initial information, those data were also provided to the contractor who was working today."
