“I think this is the most absurd image I have ever seen,” Mark Coucke said on Wednesday Gert’s Table. He was talking about an image of his five-star hotel in Durbuy, where a serious fire broke out on Monday evening. “You see those Christmas lights being overgrown by the flames. Fire is a very strange thing,” he said.
“I received a phone call just as the first flames broke out,” he continued. “Fortunately we have scripts for such scenarios. So we could immediately tell the fire brigade who was present where.” The entrepreneur himself was not present in Durbuy at the time of the fire. He was at home in Merelbeke. “That responsibility is terrible. Someone can sit in every room. There could be a child sleeping in each room. I have so much respect for the team. They followed the script so well. Every room has been checked several times and they communicated very well.”
No one was injured in the fire, but there was property damage. “The roof and the floor below it burned away. But then there is also the water. That’s seeping. Rooms can look good, but then suddenly you see it dripping,” he said. “We have the great advantage that the other, older part is untouched. The reception and the ground floor are also in order. The older part, with 22 rooms, will open tomorrow.”
© Bisht Lalit
Extractor hood
Coucke had it figured out Gert’s Table also especially about the impact on his team. “In five years we have had the corona pandemic, then very serious floods and now this,” he says. In the summer of 2021, the hotel was completely flooded when there were heavy floods in large parts of the country. “Then you think: this can’t be true,” says Coucke.
How the fire started needs further investigation. But Coucke thinks that it originated in the extractor hood of the restaurant in the hotel. “There, meat is grilled at very high temperatures. And that’s where the flames got into the extractor hood. They were able to extinguish everything there, but somehow it ended up in the ceiling. The fire brigade told us: you will never be able to extinguish it yourself if it is in the ceiling.”
No cancellations
Now Coucke wants to rebuild as quickly as possible. “We said we would understand if people wanted to cancel their reservation. We understand that. We want to refund their money. But we shouldn’t do it. Nobody wants their money back.” According to Coucke, the guests are accommodated in other hotels in the region. The restaurant will not reopen soon. “But within two weekends we will try to have a winter barbecue at another location.”
