Enschede fireworks disaster
2000 fireworks explosion
The Enschede fireworks disaster was a catastrophic fireworks explosion on 13 May 2000 in Enschede, Netherlands. The explosion killed 23 people, including four firefighters, and injured 950 others. A total of 400 homes were destroyed and 1,500 buildings damaged.
The first explosion had a strength in the order of 0.8 tons of TNT (3.3 GJ), and the final explosion was in the range of 4–5 tons of TNT (17–21 GJ). The largest blast was felt as far as the city of Deventer, 50 kilometres (31 mi) away. Fire crews were called in from across the border in Germany to help battle the blaze; it was brought under control by the end of the day.
S.E. Fireworks was a major supplier to pop concerts and major festive events in the Netherlands. Prior to the disaster it had a good safety record and had passed all safety audits.
Cause
The fire which triggered the explosion is believed to have started inside the central building of the S.E. Fireworks depot, in a work area where some 900 kg (2,000 lb) of fireworks were stored. It then spread outside the building to two shipping containers which were being illegally used to store more fireworks.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Enschede fireworks disaster” as 2000 fireworks explosion. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 2000 fireworks explosion. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1384586. Authority coordinates are 52.230, 6.893. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Enschede fireworks disaster” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.