Ringing in the new year in Drenthe has not been accompanied by too many problems. Fire brigade and hospitals report a ‘relatively quiet night’. No fireworks victims reported to hospitals.
That doesn’t mean nothing happened at all. There were smaller fires in many places, such as in waste bins. In total, the fire brigade was called 142 times, slightly less often than last year. The fire brigade was not needed for all reports, because in some cases they involved small bonfires or waste fires.
“We have often been called out, even to smaller fires. This was sometimes out of precaution, due to the strong wind,” reports a spokesperson for the Drenthe Safety Region. “If a waste bin close to bushes catches fire, the fire must still be extinguished because it can spread.” The fire brigade also occasionally attended fires that had already been extinguished by bystanders.
The vast majority of reports concerned outdoor fires and bonfires. There were also starting house fires, such as in Assen, Hoogeveen and Emmer-Compascuum. Those fires were nipped in the bud and did not grow into larger fires.
Drenthe’s hospitals also report a relatively quiet New Year’s Eve. There were no fireworks victims in the various emergency departments. This applied to the Wilhelmina Hospital (WZA) in Assen, the Isala Diaconessenhuis in Meppel and the Treant Scheper Hospital in Emmen.
However, patients were admitted to hospitals with problems due to alcohol use. These included cases of alcohol poisoning and injuries caused by falls after drinking, for example. According to the hospitals, these were not numbers that deviated much from a ‘normal’ weekend.
The data only concerns the Emergency Department. A GP post is also located in the WZA. It has not been announced whether people were treated there.
The Burn Center for Northern Netherlands in Groningen’s Martini Hospital reports having eleven patients. Four of them had to be admitted, two people had surgery after injuries caused by fireworks.
It is not known whether Drenthe were among the patients.