New Year in Hungary: first baby, buildings on fire, firework-related injuries

fireworks in Budapest, Hungary, celebration

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The first Hungarian baby of the year was born 35 seconds after the clock hit midnight. Firefighters were called out 137 times on New Year’s Eve, while ambulances responded to 3608 cases overnight.

The first baby

A baby boy born 35 seconds after midnight in Zalaegerszeg has become the first newborn in 2023 in public institutions in the country, MTI reported. The baby was born at the St. Rafael Hospital in Zala County, the obstetrics department of the hospital told MTI on Sunday. The boy, named Záven, was born by caesarean section at 48 centimetres and 2840 grams. He is the second child of his 34-year-old mother.

Zente is Budapest’s first baby

A little boy, Zente, has become the first newborn in 2023 in Budapest’s public institutions, napi.hu reports. According to the Péterfy Sándor Street Hospital and Clinic, Zente was born 8 minutes after midnight at 3440 grams and 55 centimetres, naturally. The boy is the first child of the family, born to a mother aged 21, the hospital said.

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Firefighters were called 137 times on New Year’s Eve

On the last day of the year, 197 emergency calls were received by the disaster management, of which 137 cases required fire brigade intervention, the spokesperson of the National Disaster Management Directorate (Országos Katasztrófavédelmi Főigazgatóság) General told MTI on Sunday.

According to Dániel Mukics, the fire brigade was called 48 times for fires, 89 times for accidents requiring technical rescue, and 37 fires were caused by fireworks overnight. Firefighters were mostly alerted to burning thuja, rubbish bins and leftover fireworks. However, there were also cases where cars or buildings were set on fire by pyrotechnic products, he added.

A flat became uninhabitable

“Around 7:30 PM, a firework, presumably on a balcony, set fire to a flat on the third floor of a ten-storey apartment building in Miskolc and rendered it uninhabitable. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, while forty residents had to temporarily evacuate the building. The apartment affected by the fire was rendered uninhabitable, three residents were taken in by relatives and five people suffered smoke inhalation.”

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3608 cases attended by ambulances on New Year’s Eve

Across the country, 3608 cases were attended by ambulances on New Year’s Eve, 704 of them in the capital, said a spokesman for the National Ambulance Service on Sunday with MTI. In his statement, Pál Győrfi said that in addition to traffic accidents, fights, fires, and internal medicine malaise, 188 people were hospitalised for excessive alcohol consumption, 35 of them minors. Ambulances were alerted to 19 cases of pyrotechnic device-related hand, face and eye injuries across the country.