Derk Jan in Nijverdal

In 1907 the grocery store of Derk Jan ten Bruggencate (dutch link) in Nijverdal burned to the ground. The paper reports the following

NIJVERDAL

Saturday night there was another fire in our town. There were none for a while, and we hope we are not entering another period of fires, like a few years ago. That would not be good for our citizens, as far as their fire insurance is concerned. Inadvertently our village will be looked upon as an industrial town with a densely populated center, which have a bad reputation for fire safety.

On Saturday evening, just before dark, the call was heard: The store and house of D. J. ten Bruggencate is on fire! A large crowd appeared, and the fire truck appeared quickly. And there was enough water in the pond near H. Tesselink

There was no way the fire could be extinguished, because it was extremely fierce. Neighboring houses were kept wet. Only a fraction of the furnishings could be saved. At eleven o’clock everything was down. The cause can only be guessed at.

He must have rebuild, because there is a picture of his daughter (born 1909) in front of the store. But that is for another time.

I found this news item, with an accompanying picture, on a website called Mijn Stad, Mijn Dorp (my Town, my Village), an initiative of the Historic Center Overijssel (link to Dutch, but there is a English version). The pictures are from the Beeldbank van de Gemeente Hellendoorn (Picture database of the Municipality of Hellendoorn, which includes Nijverdal).