Dutch media report that on Saturday 16 August a car leaving the Houtwal underground car park in Harderwijk caught fire. The fire had no chance to spread because the local council, which owns the car park, had fitted it with a sprinkler system. Two sprinklers opened to suppress the fire, then a smoke ventilation system operated to ease fire brigade visibility and access to complete extinguishment.

Although there was no mandatory requirement to fit sprinklers, the Harderwijk Council made the decision for financial reasons, viewing the potential loss of income from the car park and the commercial damage to the town centre from insufficient parking as reason enough. The car park has six underground levels, an area of 12,000m2 and places for 450 cars.

By contrast on 6 September the Art Hotel and surrounding buildings in Rotterdam were evacuated because of a large fire in the underground car park. The fire spread from one car to 12 others and so much smoke was produced that the metro had to be stopped.

Fires in underground car parks are not unusual. The Luxemburg Worth reports that on 29 August there was a fire in the Cloche d’Or car park in Luxemburg. The sprinkler system operated to control the fire and the fire brigade arrived to complete extinguishment.