Missiles, fireworks and a cricket bat were used to target firefighters during last year’s Bonfire Night celebrations.
A new report from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s community safety and protection committee has detailed what fire crews faced as they managed celebrations across the region in November. In its Bonfire Report for 2022, chief fire officer Phil Garrigan said the fire service expects to receive increased numbers of calls over the Halloween and bonfire period.
The report said: “To limit those increased demands, our annual Bonfire Plan was implemented to help mitigate the number of 999 calls and the overall number of Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) fires MFRS attend.” Chief Officer Garrigan’s report said the covid-19 pandemic still had a “significant impact on organised firework displays with several larger events not taking place.”
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These events would normally attract a combined attendance of more than 120,000 people diverting people away from taking part in anti-social behaviour. In 2022, St Helens Council was the only council to hold an organised firework event, held at St Helens RFC’s stadium.
The event was attended by more than 5,000 people. One of the ways the fire service sought to curb ASB was working alongside local authorities through Operation Banger.
An aim of the operation is to reduce the risk of attacks on firefighters through education and engagement. The report detailed how there had been five incidents involving attacks on firefighters, and none were reported after October 30.
This represented a reduction of three attacks when compared to the same period in 2021. Of the five incidents last year, four involved missiles being thrown at either fire appliances or cars. Eggs were used in two of the attacks, while a firework and stone were used in others.
The other incident involved a youth hitting a fire appliance with a cricket bat. The fire service said it had not been made aware of any injuries to the public that could be directly attributed to the bonfire period.
The Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority issued 39 new licences from retailers to store and sell fireworks, with 179 premises licensed to sell fireworks across the region. Officers inspected premises to ensure suitable and sufficient action had been taken by the retailers to comply with safe storage and guidance given on the selling of fireworks.
The number of deliberate secondary fires officers attended came down by 35 on 2021 figures, to 183. However, deliberate misuse of fireworks across Merseyside rose to 22 compared to 16 the year before.
This included direct attacks such as those put through letterboxes, windows or open doors. Chief Officer Garrigan wrote how “combined with a lack of organised displays, this will have impacted on the increase in incidents.”
The north of Liverpool contributed to the single most number of incidents with eight while just one was recorded in St Helens.
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