Bonfires are a tradition in The Hague, but on New Year’s Eve 2018-2019 things went terribly wrong. A shower of sparks from the Scheveningen beach bonfire swept over Scheveningen and set roofs, cars and street furniture ablaze. There were no casualties, but the damage was extensive. Later it turned out that the pile of fire was several times higher than allowed. After this hail of sparks, the municipality of The Hague, on the advice of the Dutch Safety Board, made a demonstration permit mandatory for fire organizers. The size of fire piles has been reduced to 10 by 10 by 10 meters. This is also the size of the piles in 2022.
