The memorial park at the site of the 2000 fireworks explosion in Roombeek marks one of the worst industrial disasters in recent Dutch history. On 13 May 2000, a fire at the SE Fireworks depot triggered a series of explosions that killed 23 people, injured over 900, and destroyed 400 homes and 1,500 buildings in the surrounding neighbourhood.
The memorial is a quiet, well-designed park in the rebuilt neighbourhood — an open space that preserves something of the void left by the explosion. The juxtaposition of the peaceful park with the contemporary architecture of the rebuilt Roombeek around it gives the disaster site an odd, layered quality worth taking time to read.