Greater Manchester fire crews attended more than 200 Bonfire Night incidents
and live on Freeview channel 276
North West Fire Control took 308 calls between 4pm on Saturday November 5 and 8am on Sunday November 6, with crews from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) attending 229 incidents.
This is up slightly compared to last year when firefighters attended 218 incidents across the city-region.
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Hide AdIn Wigan borough Hindley fire station was the busiest, a spokesman saying they had gone out at around 7pm and then headed from one incident to another all night until around 11.30pm.
But the local incidents, thankfully, didn’t see any people or property coming to harm.
Although the vast majority of people celebrated Bonfire Night safely and responsibly, there were isolated incidents on other parts of the city-region where crews encountered anti-social behaviour while trying to perform their duties.
In Eccles, a firework was thrown at firefighters who were trying to extinguish an unsupervised bonfire.
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Hide AdFireworks were also aimed at crews responding to an incident in Crumpsall Park, Manchester.
Crews from Manchester Central, Salford and Broughton stations attended an incident where a firework had reportedly been put through the letterbox of a home in Salford.
Firefighters arrived quickly and extinguished a small fire in the hallway of the property.
GMFRS Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Leon Parkes, said: “Bonfire Night is always a particularly challenging time for our fire crews.
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Hide Ad"Our firefighters, alongside other emergency services did a fantastic job keeping the public safe and I’d like to thank them for all their hard work over the weekend.
“I’d also like to thank the control room staff at North West Fire Control, who fielded hundreds of calls and did an excellent job in difficult circumstances.
“Unfortunately, there were a handful of isolated incidents where crews were met with abuse and had fireworks thrown at them.
"Firefighters should not have to deal with anti-social behaviour while trying to keep people safe.
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Hide Ad“Thankfully no-one was hurt but I’d like to remind the public that this behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
"Setting light to fires, throwing fireworks and making hoax calls can cost lives and keep our firefighters away from dealing with life-threatening incidents.