Overview
- Police report roughly 147,000 confiscated fireworks ahead of the night, including many professional-grade F4 items, a 6.5‑kilogram cache found in a home, and a fresh haul with 35 kugelbomben from a carsharing vehicle.
- Firefighters in Berlin will wear bodycams across operations for the first time to document assaults, with thousands of emergency personnel and extra rescue vehicles readied for the night.
- Berlin widened no‑fireworks zones at known hotspots such as Alexanderplatz, the Steinmetz neighborhood in Schöneberg, parts of Sonnenallee in Neukölln and the Admiralbrücke area in Kreuzberg, and police conducted targeted checks including 87 preventive warnings to potential offenders.
- Severe pre‑night incidents included a 16‑year‑old in Leipzig losing parts of two fingers after relighting an illegal böller, a balcony‑sparked facade fire in Reutlingen, and a Bochum apartment explosion under investigation for suspected illegal pyrotechnics production.
- Hospitals and rescue services increased staffing, with Bavaria’s Red Cross noting ambulance dispatches about every 14 seconds at midnight, as Dutch plans to ban private fireworks from 2026/27 drive hoarding and cross‑border demand this season.