On New Year's Eve at 21:41 The State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) received a call to Dārzu Street in Dobele, where a Christmas tree had caught fire on the ground floor of a two-storey apartment building and an inter-storey canopy from it. Three people evacuated from the building before firefighters arrived, one of whom had been injured and was handed over to paramedics.
On New Year's Eve in all, Emergency Service medics had around 200 calls, which is a lot, yet the injuries sustained were not severe. There have also been no car crashes with severe consequences on the New Year's Eve.
Mostly, injuries were caused by falling or conflict between celebrators under the influence of alcohol.
Overall, residents consumed alcohol in unreasonable amounts in the New Year, according to NMPD observations as they left for event sites.
On Latvia's roads, the last day of the year was relatively calm – 60 road accidents were registered, with only one person injured, while 11 drivers were caught driving under the influence of alcohol, five of whom were heavily drunk, according to information compiled by the State Police (VP).
According to the agency's LETA archive, 16 drivers were caught driving under the influence of alcohol a year ago - the last day of 2022 - 13 of whom were heavily intoxicated.
Meanwhile, the State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) received 38 calls in anticipation of the new year. Service spokeswoman Viktorija Gribuste said there had been more calls this time around compared to previous years.
