FIRE crews were sent to deal with over 200 incidents across County Durham and Darlington over the Bonfire weekend in one of the busiest timesof the year.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service say they responded to 66 bonfires, 114 fires in the open, with a total of 269 incidents over the three-day period.

On Bonfire Night itself, the service responded to 29 secondary fires, almost half the amount when compared to Bonfire Night 2020, which saw crews attend 54 secondary fires.

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The fire service says that the overall number of incidents was also down 12 per cent compared to last year’s figures.

Phil Innis, group manager, said bonfire night was extremely busy for the crews and the control room.

He added: “It is encouraging that, for the most part most of our residents enjoyed the celebrations safely and sensibly.

“We have heavily invested in arson reduction over the last twelve months, our Arson Reduction and Community Safety Teams, have worked alongside our Fire Crews delivering challenge sessions with youth groups and school children as well as social media campaigns, with the aim of keep as many people as safe as possible and reducing demand on the service.

“We also work very closely with Durham Constabulary, Durham County Council and Darlington Borough Council to ensure our joint working and joint patrols minimise the impact of Bonfire Night on our communities”

However, crews were also faced with groups of youths being verbally abusive on two occasions on Saturday November 6.

At around 2.30pm, firefighters from Crook were called to reports of a bonfire, a large group of young people attempted to obstruct the crew from extinguishing the fire and then began to verbally abusive.

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Similarly in Peterlee, White Watch also received verbal abuse off youths while attempting to extinguish a fire, later that evening, near to the Edan Lane area.

The group then proceeded to throw a missile at the crews who then left the area, no one was hurt.

Mr Innis added: “I am, however, saddened to hear that certain groups of people think it is acceptable to verbally abuse our crews while they are attempting to deal with multiple incidents across the county.

“This time of year is always busy for our firefighters and it is challenging enough without having to deal with verbal abuse too. 

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“I would like to take this opportunity to say how proud I am of our dedicated firefighters and control room operators who come to work every day to protect the communities of County Durham and Darlington.”

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