Record number of car fires on New Year’s Eve, highest total in Rotterdam

A record total of 270 car fires raged during New Year’s Eve and early on New Year’s Day, beating the previous record of 249. The Rotterdam-Rijnmond region had the most fires with 42, according to figures from the fire brigade published by Dutch safety institute NIPV.

The fire brigade received at least one report of a car fire in almost municipality in the country, with 38 incidents reported from municipalities in the province of Utrecht. The Haaglanden region accounted for 30 more, and 22 car fires were reported in the greater Amsterdam region.

Another 18 took place in Gelderland-Zuid, which includes Nijmegen, Tiel and Zaltbommel. When accounting for the number of inhabitants, this region reported the most fires per capita. The number of fires was also relatively high in the province of Groningen and southern Limburg.

The recent total beat last year’s figure of 230, and broke the previous record of 249 set five years ago. New Year’s car fires dropped off during the coronavirus pandemic to 221 to kick off 2021, 203 the following year, and 189 when residents ushered in 2023.

In total, the fire brigade had to respond more than 4,000 times during New Year’s Eve and early New Year’s Day. That is slightly more often than during the previous New Year’s. These figures are submitted by fire brigade dispatch offices, and were counted from the start of December 31 through 8 a.m. on January 1.

Figures that are announced by the individual safety regions may differ from these figures. The emergency services offices use a different method for researching and finalizing incident totals, and may use a different time period than the 32-hours range used by NIPV.