While most people celebrate the Christmas period at home, sharing family meals and exchanging gifts, others must work - including the CGDIS’ on-call fire fighters. On Christmas Day and the surrounding holidays, it’s business as usual for Luxembourg’s emergency services, although festive emergencies are often different to the norm.
Domestic or household calls are more likely to occur over Christmas, as people are more likely to congregate at home than in public spaces. Kitchen emergencies, such as Christmas tree mishaps, or hot oil fires, perhaps from a tipped-over fondue pot, are far more common over the festive period, says CGDIS veteran Marc Brandenburger. But the emergency services are also likely to be called out to deal with family disputes, physical fights, or other quarrels which have become more frequent around Christmastime. Brandenburger attributes this to the heightened consumption of alcohol over the festive period, as well as existing family conflicts.
Read also: Chrishaps - some unlucky Christmas mishapsHowever, even though the CGDIS teams have to be prepared to spring into action at any moment, they can still manage to celebrate together, explains Brandenburger. A decorated member of the fire brigade for the past 28 years and now a team leader in his own right , Brandenburger points out that if the emergency teams cannot celebrate with their own families, then at least they’re able to mark the festive occasion with their second families at work. This year, for example, the Gasperich crew held a raclette dinner on Christmas - a practical choice, says Brandenburger, as “we need only to pull the plug if the alarm goes off”.
Video report in Luxembourgish:
