Raucous New Year’s celebrations in Germany made it a busy night for emergency services overnight and into the early hours of Wednesday.
Police and firefighters across the country reported at least 4 fatal injuries the next morning, connected to explosions.
In several cities, emergency sites were bombarded with fireworks, a recurring trend in recent years. One Berlin officer was seriously injured and required surgery.
The capital’s University Hospital said it was treating eight other people with serious hand injuries and that “the night is still young” shortly after mid-afternoon. It later updated the figure to 15.
Berlin police issued an update in the early hours of Wednesday, praising the implementation of new no-fireworks zones in the city center — but still reporting widespread issues outside those areas.
“We had to make around 320 arrests, in several cases rescuers and police were attacked [with pyrotechnics],” Berlin police spokesman Florian Nath said in a video released. line. Berlin police were escorting firefighters into the city for their own safety, a resolution police said contributed.
“We also have a seriously injured police officer who appears to have been hit by an illegal firework,” Nath said, adding that he underwent emergency surgery overnight.
Cologne police said two police officers were injured by illegal fireworks and that fireworks were fired at police officers and firefighters. In Leipzig, an organization of about fifty other people attacked the emergency services. Similar reports and photographs have emerged in parts of Hamburg and elsewhere.
Fire crews were in paint across the country battling smaller fires: trash cans, houses, cars, garages and other items discovered near sidewalks.
In Neuwied, a small city in western Germany, though, police suspected a firework caused one blaze at a warehouse that grew to a serious size before being reported shortly before 1 a.m.
“A fire was discovered at the scene in a giant warehouse in which wood was stored, among other things,” Neuwied/Rhein police said in a statement. The affected citizens were evacuated from nearby homes and the fire was brought under control, according to the news release.
“Work continues to put out the fire,” the police reported around 6 in the morning. “The heat buildup on top also caused damage to nearby buildings. ” They estimated prices to be in the “mid-six-figure range. ”
“The cause of this chimney is also a New Year’s chimney display. Investigations continue,” police said, hours after responding to a similar chimney in the city center.
Police, medical professionals and firefighters have continuously banned fireworks, or at least some restrictions on the massive New Year’s fireworks amnesty practiced in Germany in recent years. The practice was closed for two years due to COVID-19, but then to restrict the public. meetings.
The German Pyrotechnics Association said the deaths and serious injuries can simply be attributed to the illegal use of fireworks.
“These harmful DIY paintings have nothing to do with legal and controlled New Year’s fire paintings” through authorized handlers, said board member Ingo Schubert.
He argued that serious injuries were “almost out of the question” even with the use of approved fireworks and said it was up to the government to crack down on illegal fireworks, not those sold in stores.
MSH/SMS (AFP, AFP)