With sirens blaring, Team C drives through the city: the craziest things happen in South

Typhoid sufferers, really. They can take a few typhoid blows. However? In a narrow street in Slinge, a neighborhood in South Rotterdam, six firefighters watch as a large fire rages fifty meters away. There is at least one scooter burning and, judging by the thick black smoke, some car tires. A group of young people throw fireworks at it until they spot the fire truck. Then they pelt the car with heavy fireworks.

It is just after one in Rotterdam, New Year's Eve. With sirens blaring, Team C drove from the barracks on Mijnsherenlaan to the report of a scooter fire. From the backseat, Lorenzo, with a route planner in his hands, had said: here to the left, there to the right, around the corner, no, the second, yes, that one, and sometimes driver Mike had cursed, because he hadn't worked that long. in South, so he didn't know the streets that well. But they had gotten there.

When they turned into the street, Mike immediately said: we are not going to perform here. Let the police come first, he said through the postage to the control room. In the backseat, his colleague Mariska took off her oxygen mask and Commander Daniël assessed the situation. Lorenzo and Wilco were worried about the boys who were pelting the car. Just blow off a finger. Yes, and then the fire brigade should definitely help them?

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We must, Daniel says calmly, continue to see the bigger picture. You can wait until the police arrive and then start putting out the fire. But in the meantime, you just stand there and ignore other notifications. And do you want to let those boys decide who can get help?

Always on duty during public holidays

A few hours earlier he had taken a sip of his coffee, eaten a bite of his chocolate cake and said that the day had been relatively uneventful up to that point. A few container fires, that would have been it. The six firefighters of Team C, five men and one woman, sat on garden and office chairs in front of the barracks in the middle of South Rotterdam. They were halfway through their 24-hour shift.

Christmas Day, or Boxing Day, or New Year's Eve. Rotterdam firefighters receive one of those three services every year. The preference of many is clear. You are in the fire brigade, you want to put out fires.

Boender has been working there for 25 years, it is his calling, and if you hear them like that, something crazy has to happen if the rest of his team doesn't get there too. Michael grew up opposite the barracks on Mijnsherenlaan and stood in front of the window when the fire brigade responded. The stories of his father, also a firefighter, did the rest. Lorenzo was first a volunteer and has now been employed for eight years. Mike had been working in Schiedam for ten years.

But in other reports, the team is confronted with the other side of the holiday: anarchy

Only Mariska had never been so concerned with it, until the HBO graduate woke up unhappy every day from her office job and, after some orientation, signed up for the course. She started in March and was hired in the summer. Now she wakes up excited every day. She is looking forward to her first house fire, especially tonight there is a chance of that. That's why you do it.

Is that crazy? You don't want to say, Michael says, I want to put out the fire. It's someone else's misery, you don't wish that on anyone. It is also the fun with the team that makes New Year's Eve attractive, being on the road together, the hard jokes in between that help to discharge. It is his eighth or ninth New Year's Eve in a row. But at the same time, very honestly: there are fires everywhere that need to be extinguished quickly, that's why you do it.

The peace does not last long. The coffee is still warm and the cake is only half finished when suddenly beeps sound everywhere in the barracks. Prio-2, no big hurry, but still: get out. It will be just before eight and the car will drive straight through South Rotterdam for three hours. Some reports are not too bad, such as a fire alarm on the SS Rotterdam. Hundreds of guests are evacuated, but the fire alarm system appears to be malfunctioning. Elsewhere, the back of an Audi A1 is burning out, within twenty seconds of arrival the hoses had been rolled out and Mariska had extinguished the fire.

But in other reports, the team is confronted with the other side of the holiday: anarchy that is reinforced by the simple fact that these are the roughest neighborhoods in Rotterdam. Mike had recently looked it up: few Rotterdam barracks receive as many reports as those on Mijnsherenlaan. The craziest things happen in South.

Fireworks ban

There is a ban on fireworks in Rotterdam on Sunday evening, with fewer of them to be seen and heard by the hour. There are constant reports of container fires from the Feijenoord district, but the fire brigade cannot always attend due to the crowds. Around eleven o'clock they responded to a larger fire on the street in Riederlaan. But be careful, says the control room, there are many bystanders. The fire truck carefully drives into the street – to assess it from a distance. Too many young people, too unsafe, too little need to put out the Christmas tree.

Shortly afterwards, in the curious last hour of the year, the port actually came to a standstill. You can pee in the barracks for a while and take off the heavy suits. Lorenzo packs a crate of soft drinks and non-alcoholic bubbles. Michael has been in contact with all the other fire crews in South via the app all evening. How many printouts do you already have? 18? Oh, then we 19.

They all come together at Charloisse Hoofd, near the Maastunnel, just before noon. Yes, it is a strategic place because of all the roads that converge nearby. But you also have a great view of the national fireworks at the Erasmus Bridge.

At twelve o'clock Lorenzo shoots a confetti cannon into the air. The firefighters wish each other the best and often nudge each other: they will come, the reports, don't worry, it will really start soon. And indeed: from 0:15 the notifications beep incessantly. A burning scooter. A house fire in Hoogvliet. A fire on the Langegeer, near the Kuip. A fire at the allotments. On the way to one report, another comes in, which is sometimes just that little bit more important, and so Mike constantly makes adjustments. The fire brigade has to choose.

Let it burn out, says Daniël, there are more important messages

Then another report comes from Riederlaan. There is now also a scooter on the pyre. But the crowd of young people is large and from a distance it can be judged that it is too unsafe. Only when riot police appear from all corners and the boys run into the side streets, throwing fireworks at the officers, does the car drive to the fire. Mariska jumps out, Lorenzo and Wilco give her a hose. ME officers form a cordon around the fire and the extinguishers. The flames disappeared in seven seconds.

High flames and thick smoke

Once they get back in, the next priority 1 immediately comes in. On the Zuidhoek, about five kilometers away, flames would reach a height of three meters, right next to a house. Once arrived, the fire appears to have been largely extinguished. Let it burn out, says Daniël, there are more important messages.

Like the one in Slinge, where the flames are high and the smoke is thick. The team waits for about ten minutes. Then it starts to rain heavily. The weather is the authorities' greatest friend all evening, which, by the way, is still checking with a police van. It is said about the postage that the “fire load” has decreased. Watch out, says Michael, as the car drives away: they'll have to go again soon. “Those guys think it's wonderful that we don't dare to perform. Or we dare. But it is not wise.”

Around two o'clock, when the team is back at the barracks, commander Daniël concludes: it was busy, but manageable. “It wasn't too intense for us.” Maybe, the firefighters hope, they will even be able to sleep for a few hours soon. But just before half past three they have to get out again: a car is on fire at the Date Garden.

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