As in previous years the New Year’s Eve celebrations in the capital didn’t pass without incident. There were dozens of incidents of vandalism, arson and anti-social behaviour (see video above) The Brussels Fire Service received 200 callouts during Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning. Meanwhile, ambulance crews dealt with 500 callouts. There were several instances of emergency service crew being pelted with fireworks.
Paramedics pelted with fireworks as they try to resuscitate person that had fallen from a balcony
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The Brussels Fire Service Spokesman Walter Derieuw told VRT News of an incident on the Jean Volderslaan in Sint-Gillis. There paramedics were pelted with fireworks after an unsuccessful attempt had been made to revive a person that had fallen to the ground from their balcony.
"After what was unfortunately an unsuccessful attempt to revive the person the ambulance crew was pelted with fireworks and forced to retreat. The police secured the area. Our crews got through the night without sustaining any physical injury”, Mr Derieuw said.
However, “It’s a different story psychologically. Because who can understand an absurd situation whereby the emergency services can not work in safety and sometimes have to leave firefighting equipment behind in order to bring themselves to safety? You are there to help others but are attacked and can’t work in safety or serenity”.
Electric scooters
The Fire Service intervened 20 times to put out e-scooters that had caught fire or had been set on fire. There were 24 interventions to put out burning trees, 57 instances of pallets being set on fire. 26 cars were set alight as were 3 bicycles, 6 mopeds and a football pitch. The police also put out 4 fires. The capital’s 6 local police services intervened a total of 407 times and detained 74 people.