Red-hot New Year as 999 crews called to six blazes

YOUNGSTERS spent a night sleeping in cardboard shelters to raise awareness of homelessness.

Members of the 22-strong 11th Outlane Beavers made their own sleeping bays out of cardboard and parcel tape and spent Saturday night in the church hall before awaking to cereal, bacon and sausages and joining the congregation at the church’s Sunday carol service.

The sleepover was organised for the six to eight-year-olds by Beaver Scout Leader Bev Oldfield.

She said: “We have sleepovers at camp, but this time we decided to have one with a theme of homelessness around Christmas time.

“We even tried cooking hotdogs over a candle to show how homeless people struggle – although they had some properly cooked ones for supper.

“For some of them, it was their first night away from home without their parents.” FIREFIGHTERS had a busy New Year period as a number of homes caught alight amid the revelry.

Candles and forgotten cooking were the cause for most of the incidents.

Fire chiefs have urged householders to use heat proof mats or appropriate holders when using candles.

They also ask people not to start cooking when they return home after a night out drinking alcohol.

A forgotten candle sparked a nasty blaze at a Mirfield home late on Friday.

A bedroom went up in flames after a tea-light was left to burn on a window ledge at a property at Kings Head Drive.

Firefighters from Mirfield and Dewsbury were needed after the curtains caught fire and the flames spread through the room.

None of the three people present were injured but the upstairs of the property was badly damaged.

At 9.10am on New Year’s Eve, Huddersfield crews were called to a house on Moss Street at Newsome after a candle was knocked over.

Flames took hold in the lounge of the home and after attempting but failing to extinguish it themselves, the occupants evacuated and called the fire service.

At 12.15 Huddersfield pumps attended a fire at Kirkstone Avenue at Dalton after a woman fell asleep after she had put a pan on the hob.

Officers were forced to break the door down as she could not be woken, despite the noise of the alarm going off, neighbours ringing her or the fire crews banging on the door.

The fire was put out and the woman, who woke when her door was put through, was not injured.

At 3.30pm another cooking accident happened at Church Street, Paddock, after bags and clothing left on top of a hob were set alight after the woman occupant unknowingly turned it on as she switched on the oven below. The occupant was not injured.

At 4.20pm fire ripped through three wooden sheds on Radcliffe Road between Wellhouse and Slaithwaite.

The road was shut for several hours as crews tackled a serious blaze and cooled LPG cylinders at the scene.

At about 1.30am crews from Dewsbury attended a suspicious car fire in Ravensthorpe.

A Ford S-Max vehicle in a driveway at Broomer Street was set alight. Police are investigating. At 6.17am they were called to the Royal Hotel at Huddersfield Road, Ravensthorpe after a chip pan set fire to the flat above the pub.

Some of the occupants had fallen asleep and forgotten the pan.

The fire caused serious damage to the kitchen but no-one was injured.