Bonfire Night success – figures down on previous year

Fire Service bosses have praised the success of their Darker Nights Bonfire Night safety campaign and thanked the public – parents and guardians in particular – for passing on the important messages to their children and relatives about the dangers of fire, fireworks and anti-social behaviour.

Early figures show (comparisons across Tyne & Wear between 2020 and 2021):

11.8% decrease in the number of calls received from 915 to 807

5.8% decrease in the total number of incidents attended from 462 to 435

13.3% decrease in the number of deliberate secondary fires from 203 to 176

33% decrease in the number of Firework-related primary fires from 3 to 2

On the evening of 5 November the Tyne and Wear FRS control room handled 356 calls, this was a 22.4% decrease from last year’s Bonfire Night (459).

Richie Rickaby, Area Manager for Community Safety at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said:

‘Bonfire Night can be a very dangerous time of year and we would like to thank the people of Tyne and Wear for taking on board and appreciating our annual safety messages in the build-up to 5 November. The resulting figures speak for themselves with the majority of areas falling significantly from last year.

‘The success is down to partnership working with our blue-light colleagues and other public-sector organisations including local authorities. This saw effective community clean-ups across the whole of Tyne and Wear, where discarded objects were removed in advance of Bonfire Night, and schools across the region received online fire prevention packs to talk about in class. We hope this trend of care and awareness continues all year round as we still need to hit home that respect needs to be given to our emergency service crews and colleagues as they help serve the local community.’

Despite the reduction in figures, TWFRS did still record six attacks on their crews across the Bonfire weekend. Nobody was injured during the incidents, where missiles were thrown at the appliances, and enquiries to identify those responsible will continue alongside Northumbria Police.

For more information, go to www.twfire.gov.uk