Thursday, June 28, 2007

Big Bonaire Fire

I was getting near the end of my after work bike ride, going fast from Mentor towards Playa Lechi on Kaya Amsterdam, when I saw a huge pillar of black smoke to the north west. Uh-oh, I thought, WEB is burning again.
But as I got closer to home, I could see that it was one of the big houses/mansions along the short just north of Habitat. The flames and smoke were huge indeed. Fortunately for me, the fire hadn't been burning too long and I could safely ride past on the road. Later, it seemed like half the island was out there and it would have been quite dangerous to be cycling along there.
I put the bike away, slapped on some real clothes over my Lycra bike duds, and went back with my camera, which happened to have a 28mm lens on it. So I snapped a few pictures and cropped them heavily. Sandra and I got there about the same time as the fire engines. Later the engine from Rincon came too. Good thing, because it was a pretty intense fire.

I am still hearing the occasional siren as I type this, but I think the fire didn't spread to any other houses, and hopefully no one was hurt. We'll probably find out more over the next day or two.

5 comments:

Ann Phelan said...

Thanks for capturing these images. Terrible situation.

Bills Place said...

How scary! I hope no one was hurt...!

Brad said...

This morning, I talked a bit to the person responsible for one of the houses right next door to this one. They talked to some fire fighters, and didn't hear of any injuries. So that is good news.

Anonymous said...

Is this #13 or perhaps another villa to the south? Having stayed in #13, the perspective does not seem right.

Anonymous said...

the mansion that was on fire was from my uncle Huub,
ik seemds that the solarpanals on the rooftop catcht fire or something like that..
i Dont know i just heard it from my father ( his brother). And now i see those pictures , it´s really terrible.. I heard my uncle was allright. Just to think that I spend 4 weeks in that same house..

xx Michelle