Mayor’s ‘disgust’ at attacks on fire crews
FIREFIGHTERS faced astonishing levels of violence as they fought to keep people safe on their busiest night of the year.
Emergency teams across Greater Manchester were repeatedly attacked with fireworks and other objects as they dealt with hundreds of calls on Bonfire Night. Several cars and a children’s playground were torched, bricks and rockets were thrown through windows and youths hurled petrol and wheelie bins into bonfires.
During the course of Sunday evening, the service received 367 calls between 4pm and 10.30pm and attended 222 incidents.
The region’s mayor Andy Burnham witnessed firsthand the chaos when a firework was thrown at the team he accompanied last night.
Mr Burnham branded the stunt ‘disgusting.’
He said it was not ‘a serious incident’ but added: “Tonight gave me a flavour of what it’s like for firefighters working during their busiest night of the year. It’s a tough job.
“It was a shock to see the fire service being attacked. Unbelievably the firefighters said it was actually very common. This is fundamentally unacceptable.
“Attacking front line 999 responders is disgusting and, where there is evidence, we should throw the book at those responsible. Attacking fire crews is certainly not what we’re about in Greater Manchester.”
One of the incidents saw youths hurl glass bottles at a fire engine as it drove through Edgehill Close in Salford on Saturday night.
On Sunday night emergency workers found a firework in the wheel of a burned out car in Farnworth, while another was torched in Rochdale.
In north Manchester youths set fire to an entire box of fireworks. At Avenue Street in Bolton, a rugby pitch was set alight. In the same area, a wooden pallet in a playground went up in flames at around 7.20pm.
Incidents in Manchester included a lit firework posted through a letterbox in South Grove, Longsight. The resident escaped without injury.
Youths were reported to have been setting off full boxes of fireworks in Faraday Avenue in Cheetham Hill.
It was feared Manchester Cathedral had caught fire, but on closer inspection smoke emitting from the roof was deemed to be steam.