John De Vlieger

John De Vlieger turned 70 last year and thought it was time to end his career as a journalist. For 45 years he followed the news in Deinze (Belgium) and surroundings closely.

One of the events that John will never forget is the factory fire at NV De Boog in 1980. "De Boog was a very beautiful textile factory, a lot of people worked there. A fire started there in the evening. I was there as one of the first and the fire brigade was on the roof but there was too little pressure on the water. This made it difficult for the fire brigade to extinguish everything. Then you feel the powerlessness and you better understand that they sometimes have to work in difficult circumstances ", says De Vlieger.

John De Vlieger is now retiring, but won't rest that much. He will focus more on his other passion: traveling. He regularly goes out to guide at home and abroad. Closer to home, he has also mapped out various walking and cycling routes for Tourism East Flanders, Tourism Leie Region and Westtoer.