The damage suffered by private individuals due to fireworks during the turn of the year amounts to at least 10 million euros.
Industry association Verbond van Verzekeraars comes up with that amount based on the first claims that insurers received on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. That damage is higher than that of the previous turn of the year. Then it was about 9 million euros.
The first estimate, for example, concerns damage to houses caused by fireworks or fire caused by fireworks. Burnt-out cars and scooters also count towards this.
The total insured loss is much higher, according to the Dutch Association of Insurers. There are also medical costs due to fireworks and business insurance. The fires in a former church in Veghel, a duck farm in Ermelo and schools in Amsterdam and Utrecht, for example, account for millions of euros in damage, but were not included in the first estimate.
According to director Richard Weurding of the Dutch Association of Insurers, the damage was higher, partly due to the strong wind last weekend. This made fireworks less predictable. “In addition, a huge amount of illegal fireworks have been imported.”
The fireworks damage was not too bad during the corona years, partly because of a national fireworks ban. In the turn of the year from 2019 to 2020, the last one before the corona crisis, there was ultimately 16.3 million euros in damage. This year, considerably more was spent on legal fireworks than in 2019.