A child picks up what he thought was a stone from the beach and it starts to smoke: “Burn marks were all over the terrace”
The stone, which turned out to be phosphorus, caused a fire at a beach restaurant in the Netherlands.
What seemed like an innocent discovery on the beach nearly ended in tragedy at a restaurant in the town of Nieuwvliet-Bad, in the Netherlands.
A child found a striking-looking stone on Verdronken Zwarte Polder beach and decided to keep it in the pocket of his coat. No one imagined it was actually phosphorus, an extremely flammable substance.
The incident took place last Friday. The boy’s father initially thought it was just an ordinary stone. Shortly afterward, however, the object began to smoke. Following his father’s advice, the child took the stone outside the restaurant and left it on the terrace. That was when the situation became truly dangerous.
Some time later, another customer went outside to smoke and noticed the stone. When he struck it, it disintegrated and immediately caught fire. The flames spread through cracks in the terrace and ignited a fire beneath the restaurant. “Burn marks were all over the terrace,” said Van den Hemel, the restaurant’s owner.
Thanks to the quick response of the staff, who used a fire extinguisher, along with help from passersby, the fire was brought under control before it caused serious damage.
The dangers of phosphorus
It soon became clear that this was not an ordinary stone. Phosphorus stones appear several times a year on beaches in the region. Their origin dates back to old munitions from the First and Second World Wars that were dumped at sea and can resurface over time due to weather conditions and ocean currents.
Phosphorus poses no danger while it remains underwater, but once it dries out, it can ignite spontaneously and continue burning. For this reason, authorities recommend immediately covering such finds with sand or water and notifying emergency services.
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