Dutch safety board issues very critical report into NYE bonfire

A Dutch safety board issued a very critical report on October 3  into a giant New Year’s Eve bonfire on a beach in The Hague, Netherlands, that sent a lot of glowing coal or embers onto nearby streets and buildings. The embers caused widespread damage but no injuries were reported. The tires and saddles of bicycles parked nearby suffered severe damage and were melted. The nearby streets and roofs were covered in black embers.

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The Dutch Safety Board report condemned the city's municipality authorities

The Dutch Safety watchdog report condemned the city's municipality authorities for lax regulation and the builders of the huge pile of wooden pallets for violating agreements about its size and the use of accelerants including barrels of diesel to help ignite the stack. For quite a long time, two workers at the shoreline neighbourhoods in The Hague have competed with each other to build the greatest bonfire. The construction and resulting blazes have turned into a noteworthy fascination, with a huge number of individuals visiting the seashores to watch manufacturers heaping up thousands of pallets and burning them on New Year's Eve night. The safety board's report on Thursday stated that the fires that have been allowed and partially funded by the municipality since the 1980s as a way of minimizing New Year’s Eve unrest that long caused distress to the city, cannot be organized in their current form any longer.

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Municipality authorities state they will take necessary actions

The report said that no official license was conceded for the flames, with organizers and the municipality drawing up a contract in 2016 that regulated the constructions. Last year's fire went up to 150 feet in height which is 33 feet higher than considered. The report stated that the municipality knew about the excessive size of but did not take any actions. The Hague municipality reacting to the report said they will take necessary actions to prevent the flying of embers and large pieces of wood in the future. Mayor Pauline Krikke said people who were present in Scheveningen on New Year’s Eve experienced fear and promised it would never happen again.

With inputs from AP

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