Dutch safety board issues scathing report into NYE bonfire

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A Dutch safety watchdog has published a scathing report into a giant New Year's Eve bonfire on a beach in The Hague that sent a blizzard of glowing embers onto nearby streets and buildings.

Nobody was seriously injured, but the embers caused widespread damage.

The Dutch Safety Board report criticizes the city's municipality for lax regulation and the builders of the huge stack of wooden pallets for breaching agreements about its size and the use of accelerants to help ignite the stack.

For years, two seaside neighborhoods have vied with one another to build the biggest bonfire.

Thursday's report said that the fires, which are allowed by the municipality as a way of minimizing New Year's Eve unrest that long plagued the city, can't continue in their current form.