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Concern rises over attacks on firefighters |
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The Fire Brigades’ Union (FBU) has published its report Easy Targets? on the issue of attacks on firefighters. The report has amassed figures from all fire and rescue services in England and Wales. In one fire and rescue service alone, Lancashire, there were 26 in the fiscal year 2005-2006 and 38 for the following year. The figure for attacks during 2007-2008, though not incorporated in the report, was 50 attacks.
CFO Peter Holland told FIRE that this should not be interpreted necessarily to be an increase in the incidence of attacks so much as a reflection on the work done by the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to encourage its staff to report incidents. He commented: “We deplore and vigorously prosecute through the courts attacks on firefighters, often perpetrated by youths at fires they have deliberately started. That said, we recognise that the vast majority of young people are positive, law abiding and decent citizens who also denounce the anti-social behaviour of the few and indeed who are only too often the victims of street violence themselves. “We use a number of approaches to tackle the problem, ranging from the use of the law to prosecute offenders and provide a deterrent, to community liaison work to convey strong messages on the unacceptability of such behaviour and the fact that it endangers people as well as firefighters when their response to emergencies is compromised.” CFO Holland gives two examples from 2007: “In March last year, in Blackpool, a youth climbed onto the roof of a fire engine in attendance at a fire started deliberately in a rubbish bin. He attempted to remove the rescue ladder, kicked the vehicle and began to set about opening equipment lockers on the outside of the machine. Firefighters caught him and handed him over to the police, leading to the first conviction in the UK under the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act, introduced only the month before.
“In October last year, in Blackburn, an incident occurred which is mentioned in the FBU report in which a fire engine on an emergency call had slowed to a halt to negotiate red traffic lights safely. A brick was thrown through a cab side window and splinters of glass cut one of the firefighter crew. Our community liaison worker for that area reported that the whole community was outraged by the offence and within 24 hours of the incident he had been given the names of the culprit and his accomplices. “Anti-social behaviour is a term that embraces attacks on firefighters, but it also includes such acts as the destruction of property, violence inflicted by young people on young people and deliberate fire setting. Addressing the whole phenomenon, in partnership with the police, the courts, The Prince’s Trust, and all the other agencies we include in our comprehensive support network to achieve our objective to make Lancashire safer, is the way to combat this and there is every reason to believe that we will succeed.”
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