Two years after the fact, Dutch teens are still overcoming the trauma. On New Years Day, 2001, a fire in a cafe in Volendam, Netherlands, killed 14 teenagers and wounded 250. The teens connected to the disaster have shown signs of greater anxiety, aggression and alcohol abuse, according to a study that has tracked their ability to cope.
Before the fire, the students from Volendam had enrolled in a study investigating the effectiveness of a school health program designed to identify and prevent behavioral and emotional problems. Five months after the fire, three quarters of the students involved with the disaster agreed to be reevaluated.
The students reported three times more depression, anxiety, incoherent thinking and aggression, than students not involved with the fire. The Volendam students were four times more likely to abuse alcohol, and girls showed more mental trauma than boys.
