While New Year's Day was significantly calmer than New Year's Eve in Brussels, the region's fire brigade was called out several times to put out car fires.
The Brussels Fire Brigade was called out another 24 times on Wednesday night. Emergency services were called to fires reported in several municipalities, including Anderlecht, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Koekelberg, Neder-Over-Heembeek and Saint-Gilles.
Unlike during the celebrations for New Year's Eve, no firefighters were confronted with violence on New Year's Day. "For certain interventions, we waited for the arrival of the police, but otherwise, we were able to do our work without any problems," said Derieuw.
Four interventions involved cars set on fire, but one call turned out to be a false alarm. The three burning vehicles were on Anderlecht's Boulevard du Midi, Rue de l'Aiguille and Avenue Raymond Vander Bruggen. In the other 20 incidents, random objects were set on fire.
New Year's chaos
The Brussels Fire Brigade's spokesperson, Walter Derieuw, described New Year's Eve as a "hectic night" for the crews.
Firefighters had Molotov cocktails thrown at them. They responded to 588 calls, including for 30 burning vehicles. Their assistance was requested 56 times for burning street furniture or rubbish bins.
On a normal evening, they are called out for around 60 fires.
