Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper): On New Year’s Eve, 600 emergency calls were made in Brussels, including 158 fires and 430 ambulance requests, raising safety concerns among residents.
In recent years, many incidents have taken place on New Year’s Eve in Brussels. One of the sharpest spikes took place this year. A post on X says that the fire brigade responded to some 600 calls last New Year’s Eve-a big jump from around 100 in 2020 and 82 in 2023. However, according to a spokesperson, 158 were fires, and 430 were ambulance calls. This information sparked discussions online, highlighting concerns about safety during celebrations.
What factors contributed to the spike in emergency calls in Brussels?
The recent count of emergency calls in Brussels showed that during the New Year period, there were about 450 calls on a typical day, including 60 for fires. In past years, the numbers were similar, with around 663 calls last year and 700 the year before. However, some reports mixed fire brigade calls with ambulance calls, which created confusion about the actual increase in incidents. Safe.Brussels clarified that their data separates these types of calls, so the comparison made was misleading.
The differences in emergency call numbers between the fire brigade and safe.brussels are due to their different counting methods. Safe.brussels focuses on incidents from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. for New Year’s Eve, while the fire brigade counts over a full 24-hour period. This leads to varying totals. Moreover, safe Brussels uses finalized reports, which can take time, while the fire brigade’s figures are often more immediate but may not be as precise. The same situation applies to ambulance calls, where different time frames cause further discrepancies in the data.
