Children startNews blazes and then attack fire crews

YOUNGSTERS ARE HURLING OBJECTS AT FIREFIGHTERS IN UNDERPASS

CHILDREN as young as ten set fires in bins before hurling bricks, bottles and cans at the firefighters who came to extinguish them.

Officers at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service have reported being attacked by children and young teenagers at a West Denton underpass they say has become a hotbed of anti-social behaviour.

Firefighter Mike Hutton said he and his crew have frequently been called to Northumbria Walk, the path leading under West Denton Way.

He said: “It is the underpass where the elderly people walk through and unfortunately the kids are setting fires there.

“When the crews arrive to make things safe they frequently find themselves set upon by the gangs of youths who start the blazes.

Mr Hutton said: “We are getting missiles thrown at us and all sorts and that is a bit discomforting for the crews who attend these incidents.

“Bricks, cans, bottles, anything the kids can get hold of out of the bins before they put them on fire.

“They make it challenging when we are trying to put out the fire.

“There was an incident the other night when one of the guys had to run after the fire because they were dragging it away in the wheelie bin.”

He had a chilling message for parents who might think their children were too young to be involved in this sort of behaviour.

He warned: “Know where they are at, what they are doing, what time they are in.

“Make sure they are in at a certain time because this is not teenagers of 16, 17 years old doing this - it is the younger ones, ten, 12, 14.”

Station manager Geoff Hagon said the call-outs were “totally unnecessary” and could lead to deaths or injuries by preventing firefighters making it to more serious incidents.

He added: “It brings the standard of the area down, it frightens people in their homes, it is absolutely dreadful.

“Firefighters come out with the best of intentions, they all joined the service to save people and to make the environment a better place for people to live and they are coming out unnecessarily to these incidents and they are receiving abuse from the people who started these fires.

“They are throwing rocks at them, which puts them at risk from injury or death. They could lose an eye.”