At work news spread quickly last Saturday: here in suburbia a terrible accident occured. A building with flats housing seven people exploded and collapsed. One sixty year old woman was instantly killed, a couple more injured, some severely so, it was said.

Members on their way to our golf club passing the site ran late, as traffic came to a complete halt, to let rescuers and police do their work. On Sunday  it got worse. Police dogs had found another corpse in the rubble. It was not possible to identify the person. A post mortem would have to verify the identity of the male.

The remainder of the house had to be taken down, as the whole structure threatened to collapse. It is assumed, the explosion was caused by leaking gas, igniting for some reason. However, investigations will take a while, as heavy machinery is needed to get to the basement of the house, where the fire department and police expect to find the cause for the desaster.

An incident like that takes your attention. However, Monday morning it got personal. Turns out, the man found dead in the rubble was a member of our greenkeeping staff.

All of us are disdraught, obviously. Especially the guys at the green division, who have been working with M. for quite a few years.  One of them even happens to be family, he is sorrow-stricken. Our hearts go out to those still recovering and to the families of the dead.