By Janene Van Jaarsveldt
The NL Times
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The fire departments of The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam are calling on citizens to first try extinguishing fires themselves over New Year’s before calling the fire department. This is because they are too busy during the turning of the year to help everywhere, De Telegraaf reports.
“A burning Christmas tree in the middle of the street can not do much harm”, a fireman said to Omroep West earlier this week. “It is only dangerous if it is against a car or a house. A burning trash can? Let it burn, within a few minutes it will go out by itself.”
In the major cities, fire department calls are now taken over by the police force. The fire department is too busy over New Year’s and wants to focus on truly dangerous fires. “All of our employees are on the road 24 hours and have almost no time to eat because they are constantly busy.” said a spokesman of the fie department in Amsterdam.
Full story: Extinguish fires yourself: city fire chiefs