Thousands of fires reported on New Year’s Eve as car and home blazes spike

This New Year’s Eve saw a sharp increase in fires, with far more cars and homes affected than in previous years. Figures from the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety (NIPV), which supports the regional safety authorities, show that the number of house fires has doubled over the past two years.

The NIPV reported 361 car fires this New Year’s Eve, a rise of over 33 percent compared with last year. In the 2024–2025 New Year’s period, 271 car fires were recorded, and two years ago, emergency services counted 230. Overall, this marks a 57 percent increase in just two years.

House fires increased by 53 percent, reaching 228 this New Year’s Eve. Two years ago, there were 109, meaning the total has more than doubled in that time. Last year, a total of 144 housing fires were registered.

On this past New Year’s Eve, 1,006 container fires were reported. While slightly down from last year, this is still far above the roughly 800 seen in previous years.

The fire department recorded a total of 4,286 incidents, slightly more than during the previous New Year’s Eve. Most incidents occurred in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond (701) and Haaglanden (578) regions. The Amsterdam-Amstelland, Utrecht, Gelderland-Midden, Hollands-Midden, Gelderland-Zuid, Midden- and West-Brabant, and Groningen safety regions each reported more than 200 incidents.

Like last year, Rotterdam remained the region with the highest number of car fires. Multiple cars were destroyed by fire in a parking garage under an apartment building on Pluvierhof. The fire department raised the alert to GRIP-1 because of the severity of the blaze. Six more cars were completely destroyed in a separate parking garage in the Vlaardingen area.

The NIPV relies on data from fire department control rooms, covering a 32-hour period from midnight on December 31 to 8 a.m. on January 1.