Emergency services in Dublin had one of their busiest days of the year on Saturday, with over 345 ambulance and fire brigade call outs.
There were over 200 callouts on Saturday night, between 7pm and 7am, with 140 of these after midnight.
A spokesman for Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) said it was difficult to pin-point why Saturday was so busy, though added it appeared the 2016 Christmas party season got underway this weekend.
There were no serious injuries.
“It was crazy busy, but it is busy all the time. There is never a quiet day or night in Dublin Fire Brigade. So yes, it was very busy but it was not unique.”
He said the DFB was expected to have responded to 100,000 ambulance call-outs this year, by the end of the week. “That’s 100,000 ambulance calls with just 12 ambulances”.
While ambulances were sent to serious 999 calls, the most serious life-threatening callout - known as ‘echo’ and ‘delta’ calls - were responded to with fire-tenders, which can carry more fire-fighter paramedics than an ambulance.
All DFB fire-fighters are also paramedics.
