Brussels firefighter strike: only 17% of staff on duty, aid ‘compromised’ on fifth day

On the fifth day of a strike by Brussels firefighters, emergency services in the Belgian capital are operating at drastically reduced levels. As of Saturday morning, 25 July, only 17% of scheduled on-call personnel were present, fire service spokesman Walter Derieuw said. The operational coverage for firefighting interventions was about 20%, while urgent ambulance coverage stood at roughly 60%, thanks to reinforcements from outside the capital. The 112 emergency call centre and fire dispatch centre were each functioning at about half their normal capacity.

Emergency response severely curtailed

Derieuw warned that basic assistance to the public is now at risk.

Because of this greatly reduced presence, the aid provided to the Brussels population is compromised.

Available resources are being assigned first to life-threatening situations, and delays in answering calls and dispatching units “cannot be excluded,” the service said in a statement.

Available resources are therefore assigned as a priority to the most urgent and life-threatening situations. Delays in call handling and in some interventions cannot be excluded.

The operational directorate is monitoring the situation continuously and adjusting deployment according to the severity of each alert. Citizens are being asked not to dial 112 except in a genuine emergency, to conserve limited capacity.

Five days of deadlocked talks

The strike, called by the joint union front of Siamu (the Brussels Fire and Emergency Medical Aid Service), began on Tuesday 21 July. Initial negotiations on Wednesday failed, and on Thursday minister-president Boris Dilliès convened an extraordinary Council of Ministers that gave him a mandate to propose new measures. According to ACV/CSC representative Steven Gilissen, Dilliès had conditioned any resumption of negotiations on a prior suspension of the action, a demand the unions refused. A three-hour meeting with union representatives on Friday evening did not produce an agreement, and Dilliès was not present, according to corporal and CGSP delegate Pablo Nyns. The central issue, Nyns said, remains the staffing plan and the number of personnel needed to run Siamu properly. Talks were set to resume on Saturday morning.

The government’s 132-recruit offer

The proposals floated late Thursday include 132 new recruitments by the end of 2027, creation of a specific career framework for ambulance staff, and an additional envelope of €10 million for Siamu. The unions did not suspend the strike, judging that the government’s announcements lacked guarantees on implementation. Dilliès accused the unions of choosing to continue while adding new demands and asked them first to clarify their priority claims.

As soon as the unions have carried out this exercise, I will be ready to negotiate constructively 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Nyns pushed back, saying the government’s plan contained “a lot of communication” but lacked concrete grounding.

We want to negotiate today, but on concrete commitments.

What happens next

The union front remains mobilised and is sticking to the strike order. Saturday’s scheduled talks involve the three permanent union delegates mandated by the front. The Brussels government’s offer is still on the table, but without a breakthrough the emergency coverage in the capital will stay at sharply reduced levels. For now, residents are being asked to use 112 only for real crises and to expect slower response times.