More fires but fewer serious injures over New Year

The seven serious eye injuries from fireworks is the lowest number since 2008

Jan 2, 2014

Fireworks caused 73 serious injuries during the New Year celebrations according to Copenhagen's health authority, Region Hovedstaden, which collected the statistics from around the country.

Seven were serious eye injuries, of which one is a ten-year-old boy from Herning who is expected to lose his sight after a chrysanthemum bomb exploded in his hand.

All those suffering from serous eye injuries are men – the majority were between the ages of 18 and 29 – and none were reportedly wearing eye protection.

Fewer injuries, more fires
It is the fewest number of serious eye injuries caused by New Year celebrations since 2008 when four were recorded. In 2010 the number was 15, while in 1975 there were 42.

It was a busier year than usual for fire services, which were called out 383 times between 6pm on New Year's Eve and 6am on New Year's Day.

It's significantly more than the 275 calls from the previous year, which the Danish Emergency Management Agency, Beredskabsstyrelsen, blames on the mild weather.

Few significant fires
"There were more people on the streets because of the good weather, which means more fireworks and more fires," Beredskabsstyrelsen spokesperson Jens Roland Hansen told Ritzau.

Beredskabsstyrelsen reports that 201 of the 383 fires were in rubbish containers, 101 were in buildings, 40 were fires in vehicles and the remaining 41 were in a range of other locations.

In Copenhagen, a firework set alight the roof of a building in the historic port district of Nyhavn.

Home destroyed
Thirty-five firefighters successfully fought to control the fire at Nyhavn 39 and no-one was injured.

A house near Odense was almost completely destroyed by a fire while its occupants were celebrating the New Year with neighbours.

Police on Funen report that a rocket went astray and exploded either inside or beside the home, causing a fire that completely destroyed the first floor of the house, and rendered the property completely uninhabitable.

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