The Enschede Fireworks Disaster – The 2000 Explosion That Shook the Netherlands.

On May 13, 2000, the Dutch city of Enschede was struck by disaster when the SE Fireworks storage site exploded. The blast killed 23 people, injured nearly 1,000 others, and destroyed an entire neighborhood within seconds. Known as the Vuurwerkramp, or Fireworks Disaster, it remains one of the deadliest tragedies in modern Dutch history. In this episode of The Lowest Crime, we take you back to that day, tracing how the fire started, how the explosions unfolded, and how survivors experienced the chaos. We also explore the investigation, lawsuits, and political fallout that followed, and why questions about responsibility and accountability continue to linger more than two decades later. This is the story of a catastrophe that reshaped Dutch safety regulations and left an indelible mark on Enschede and the Netherlands as a whole.