The fire broke out just following one in the followingnoon on the third floor of the former office building of the Tax Department, which is occupied by hundreds of people. “We fought the fire from the inside and the outside,” says Walter Derieuw of the Brussels fire brigade. “We got it extinguished pretty quickly, but our search and rescueoperation was hampered by the fact that a large number of people simply did not want to be evacuated.”
Two large fire escapes were set up in Paleizenstraat, but residents made it clear from higher windows that they did not intend to leave the building. “There is a drug problem in that building,” says Derieuw. “We have declared the third floor uninhabitable and that is where our authority ends. As a fire service, we are a technical advisor. Policy must decide what to do with our advice.”
Most of the approximately one thousand residents are asylum seekers for whom Fedasil is supposed to provide housing and food. In practice, people are left to fend for themselves, and day by day there is less of the little self-regulation that existed at the beginning of the occupation in October. Many residents have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, diphtheria and scabies. The police no longer dare to enter the building. The Red Cross will remove its medical aid station this weekend.
Fight
When the fire brigade left Paleizenstraat around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, the residents went back into the building as quickly as they might. An argument immediately arose regarding new sleeping places to be created.
“The majority stayed inside, including myself,” says Isabelle Thomas from Brussels, regarding the only woman and only white resident. “We feared that we would lose our place to sleep. A little later it was no longer possible to flee, because the smoke in the stairwell made it impossible to see anything. You mightn’t breathe either. People would then start opening windows, no matter how loudly I shouted that in the event of a fire that is the stupidest thing you can do.”
In the office where the fire started, there is insulation material on the floor that has apparently been recycled into a mattress. And also large cans of laughing gas. “A drug party that has degenerated,” says Yassin, an Afghan asylum seeker. “The third are mostly Moroccans and Algerians.”
Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor (cd&v) tweeted: “Fedasil has removed 114 people with a right to reception in the past three weeks. We will continue that, but everyone will have to take their responsibility.” She did not clarify who she is referring to.
A justice of the peace ordered the evacuation of the building, but no one seems to know how that should be done. “If only they would just give us garbage bags and cleaning supplies,” says Isabelle Thomas. “It is the sadness here, the smell of piss, the shit and the hunger that makes many aggressive.”
