On 30 July, a fire broke out at fruit processing company VS Apple Industries in Marknesse, the Netherlands. “The fire destroyed everything and the cause is unknown,” says Caroline de Vente, daughter of the owner, in a response. About 70 firefighters in total tried to combat the fire.
Photo: Freddy Schinkel
“We’re grateful no one got hurt, and we’re now looking for an alternative production location. We’ll be in touch with all of our customers to find a fitting solution. Our customers comes first. We want to prevent them from being in any way affected by this situation, and we’re working hard to be operational again as soon as possible,” Caroline continues.
The warehouses of VS Apple Industries BV on the Blokzijlerdwarsweg were completely reduced to ashes. All of the apples in storage were destroyed. A lot of the crates placed next to the building were lost as well. The only thing that could be saved was the house on the premises and a number of nitrogen cylinders. A tanker, which happened to be empty, was spared as well, although the outside of the cabin was partially melted.
The family’s not giving up. “We’ll naturally shed a tear, but we can’t dwell on it. I suppose that’s what characterises our family,” Caroline concludes.