Who are the survivors of the Schiphol Fire?

There were 85 people locked up in block J and K. They are the officially  recognized survivors of the fire. Bart Zuidervaart of newspaper Trouw published their story the day before the Commemoration. On the flash map (below) you can see the names of those known to us. But many are still unidentified. They are from China, Turkey, Rumania, Ex-Yogoslavia, etc.  In all there were people from 36 different nationalities.

Besides block J and K, many people in Block D, next to block K, are equally traumatized by the fire that happened in front of their eyes. They sounded the first alarm, but they were neglected by the guards. These people have not been seen as victims or survivors. They were in for smuggling cocaine from Latin America and arrested at their entry on the airport. The prison complex has actually been constructed to tackle the rising number of people from Suriname who try to make a buck this way.

And then there are another 150 people who were in other blocks. They were also undocumented migrants from all over the world. And they were deported as soon as possible after the fire. Nobody knows who they are and how they survive these days.

The relatives of the eleven dead, some of them in Holland, but most in distant places, are trying to cope with their loss in their own way. We reach out to them, like we reach out to all brothers and sisters affected and by the fire and by the politics that caused it.

And we don’t forget the helpers: those guards who really tried to save lives, the fire brigade that arrived too late to face the fire and the health workers who did not distinguish between legal and illegal patients.

The eleven dead have been documenmted by Jannetje Koelewijn in NRC Handelsblad.

This is a map of cellblock K. Move over the cells voor information (in Dutch) about the people who were locked there the day of the fire.