Small fire at Applied Sciences on a fateful date

The fire brigade extinguished a small fire on Wednesday afternoon 13 May at the Faculty of Applied Sciences on the South Campus. Given the date, the incident brings back memories of the devastating fire at the Faculty of Architecture on 13 May 2008.

The fire at the Chemical Engineering department within Applied Sciences started in a waste bin in a laboratory. Because the bin may have contained hazardous substances, firefighters hosed down all their protective gear and equipment in the street after extinguishing the fire. These were then taken to a specialised cleaning facility, according to news agency District8.

Architecture fire

Meanwhile, the fire brigade worked with emergency response officers to find ways to ventilate the modern building with its climate-controlled laboratories as effectively as possible. Students and staff had to remain outside throughout.

The fire brigade is called out to TU Delft regularly: frequently it turns out to be a false alarm or a relatively minor incident. How different it was on 13 May 2008, when a leak in a coffee machine at the Faculty of Architecture led to a fire that destroyed the entire building. The damage was so severe that it had to be demolished. The site is now home to The Green Village. The Faculty of Architecture has for many years been housed in the former TU Delft main building.

In 2023, Delta produced a podcast about the Architecture fire (in Dutch).