Firefighters in Iceland called fifty times during New Year’s Eve due to brush fires

Sunnlenska has reported that Iceland’s firefighters were called out around fifty times across the country due to brush fires caused by fireworks.

Firefighter Lárus Kristinn Guðmundsson explains, “I don’t remember such a great many calls on New Years before… We’ve dispatched all of our stations at some point or another, except at Laugarvatn, and firefighters have been called to duty in every district; for example, our team in Þorlákshöfn has been called out to both Selfoss and Hveragerði.”

The largest of the brush fires occurred just south of Selfoss in Tjarnabyggð. A windmill in Þykkvabær also saw extensive damage due to these fires. It was noted that previously this site was home to two windmills, with the other being destroyed due to a fire that broke out in 2017.

Iceland’s unseasonably dry winter made the conditions for the 2021-2022 celebrations considerably more flammable.

In 2021, Iceland’s Search-and-Rescue teams received about 800 million ISK in sales of fireworks.