Officially is the source of the legionella outbreak of 1999 in Chapels was never found. The authorities watched from day one to the water from hot tubs that are on the trade Fair were. The Antwerp public prosecutor found after a test legionella bacteria in a whirlpool. But the court could not hardmaken that the bacteria the same stem cells as the ziekmakers which a hundred people fell ill and five people in Kapellen death.
“I still find it incomprehensible that they are the source never formally have become obsolete”, says the local councillor Marc De Smet (Open VLD). His father in law, Fred Hendricks (53) died a week after he the local cafébaas Staff Vervoort was going to help with the breakdown of his drankenstandje at the annual trade Fair. ”Everyone knows that hot tubs are the source of the contamination. Everyone who died, was at the Fair near the hot tubs.”
so very TiredFred Hendricks spent an entire day in the vicinity of the whirlpools. “The stall of Staff compared to a company that whirlpool baths exhibited. They were also breaking down,” says De Smet. “When he in the evening got back home he was dead tired. He complained still that there are much to warm to work.”
Nightmare“Only a week after the first symptoms he went to the hospital, on the insistence of us. Breathing was getting harder and harder. A few hours he died. It is unreal: you are going to someone a helping hand and a few days later it will kill you. It was a nightmare where we are here still talking about it.”