Brussels firefighters strike as Dilliès offers round-the-clock talks
Brussels regional minister Boris Dilliès said on 24 July 2026 that he is ready to negotiate "24 hours a day, 7 days a week" with striking firefighters of the Brussels fire and emergency medical service (SIAMU/DBDMH), as industrial action over staffing, working conditions and pay disrupts the capital's fire and ambulance cover. Unions have kept the action running while minimum service arrangements hold emergency response together.
A strike inside the Brussels fire and emergency medical service touches the one public service residents cannot substitute. Even with minimum service and requisition keeping 112 calls answered, industrial action strains response capacity in a region of roughly 1.2 million people during the summer period, when staffing is already thin. It also puts a concrete price on a long-running argument about how much the Brussels Region can afford to spend on its own emergency capacity.
SIAMU (Service d'incendie et d'aide médicale urgente) / DBDMH (Dienst voor Brandbestrijding en Dringende Medische Hulp) is the single, bilingual fire and emergency medical service of the Brussels-Capital Region, covering the region's nineteen communes and operating its ambulance fleet within the federal 112 system. It reports to the Brussels regional government; political responsibility currently sits with minister Boris Dilliès (MR), the former mayor of Uccle, who took the firefighting and emergency medical assistance portfolio in the Brussels regional executive. Unlike Flanders and Wallonia, where fire services are organised in multi-municipality zones, Brussels has one region-wide service — which means a labour dispute there is simultaneously an operational and a governmental problem.
Background
Labour tension inside the Brussels fire service is not new. SIAMU has seen repeated union actions over the past decade over understaffing, overtime, ageing equipment and the pay scale, and successive Brussels governments have promised recruitment plans that unions argue were only partly delivered. The service also carries the institutional memory of the 22 March 2016 attacks, when Brussels firefighters and ambulance crews were among the first responders at Maalbeek and Zaventem — an experience unions have since cited when arguing for staffing and psychological support.
What to do
Call 112 for fire or medical emergencies as normal — minimum service applies. Use 1733 for non-urgent medical help outside surgery hours. Expect possible delays to non-urgent ambulance transport, fire-safety inspections and prevention visits, and check with your commune before assuming a scheduled inspection or event safety clearance will go ahead while the dispute continues.
Impact
Regional — The action affects all nineteen Brussels communes, since SIAMU operates as a single regional service rather than as separate municipal brigades. Residents should continue to use 112 for emergencies; the visible effects are more likely to appear in delays, non-urgent patient transport, prevention visits and inspections than in unanswered emergency calls.
Opposing perspectives
- Firefighters' unions at SIAMU/DBDMH
The unions representing Brussels firefighters and ambulance staff argue that the service has been run for years below the staffing level its workload requires, forcing overtime, shift juggling and delayed leave, and that equipment renewal and pay scales have not kept pace with the demands placed on a single service covering nineteen communes. From this position, a strike is the only lever that reliably produces a negotiating table, and an open-ended offer of talks matters less than a written commitment on posts and budget.
- Brussels regional government (minister Boris Dilliès, MR)
The minister's stated position is that dialogue should be permanent and unconditional — he has said he is ready to negotiate constructively 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — and that disputes inside an emergency service are better resolved at the table than through action that unsettles residents. The regional government also operates under acute budgetary pressure, which limits how quickly commitments on recruitment or pay can be converted into signed agreements.
- Brussels residents and 112 users
For people living in or passing through the capital, the argument over posts and pay is secondary to whether an engine or an ambulance arrives. Residents' primary concern is that minimum service genuinely holds, that 112 response times do not slip during the summer period, and that they are told clearly and early which non-urgent services — prevention visits, inspections, planned transport — are suspended while the dispute continues.
- Communal authorities and prevention services
Local authorities across the nineteen communes depend on SIAMU not only for emergency response but for prevention inspections, permit-related fire safety advice and event safety cover. A prolonged stoppage tends to create a backlog in that administrative layer, delaying inspections and authorisations, and communes have limited means of their own to substitute for a service organised at regional level.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceBX1 — "Grève des pompiers: Boris Dilliès est 'prêt à négocier de manière constructive 24 heures sur 24, 7 jours sur 7'"Primary· bx1.be· 24 July 2026Retrieved 24 July 2026· 2 days ago· Dated
- View sourceDH (La Dernière Heure) — "Grève des pompiers à Bruxelles : Boris Dilliès se dit prêt à négocier '24h/24, 7j/7'"· dhnet.be· 24 July 2026Retrieved 24 July 2026· 2 days ago· Dated
- View sourceSIAMU / DBDMH — official service website (Brussels-Capital Region)· pompiers.brusselsRetrieved 24 July 2026
- View sourceBrussels-Capital Region — regional government portal· be.brusselsRetrieved 24 July 2026
How this story developed
2 reports on this subject — earliest first. You are reading the highlighted entry.
- Brussels firefighters strike as Dilliès offers round-the-clock talks· You are here
- Brussels firefighters warn strike is straining the capital's emergency services