Fire crews had stones thrown at them as they attended a number of incidents around Caerphilly County Borough over the bonfire weekend.
Firefighters from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS) were subjected to being pelted by stones in Fochriw, Trinant and Phillipstown in scenes reminiscent of last year.
The attacks have been called “appalling”, and came as fire crews attended around 25 incidents across the borough on Friday November 3, Saturday 4, and Sunday 5.
Amongst those, there were 16 deliberate refuse fires, and two vehicle fires.
Matthew Jones, Head of the Fire Crime Unit at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Our job is to save lives and protect property, but when we’re responding to emergency calls the last thing our firefighters expect is to be assaulted.
“Firefighters put their lives on the line to keep communities safe and to be treated with such a lack of respect sometimes is, quite frankly, appalling.
“We have a zero tolerance approach to these attacks and people behind them are committing a serious crime. Those responsible will be reported, caught and dealt with accordingly by our police colleagues.”
On Friday, November 3, a crew from Aberbargoed attended an out of control bonfire and youths throwing fireworks in New Tredegar at 5.21pm. Elsewhere, a crew from Rhymney attended an unattended fire at a football field in Fochriw at around 6.32pm.
On Saturday, November 4, Rhymney crews responded to reports of children playing with fire in Ty-Coch, while crews were also called to a fire on Eglwysilan Mountain near Abertridwr.
Crews dealt with an unsafe fire at Lansbury Park, Caerphilly, at around 5.48pm on Sunday, November 5, before attending reports of a grass fire near the railway in Pontllotyn.
I wonder where the police were? Surely there are instant communications between firefighters and police, if there are attacks on them the police should be there quickly.
I was thinking that too? This proves again that we have no police on our streets otherwise they would have been there to do something about this. Instead we have… let me put that another way because we dont see these either. We did have these CPOs and council wardens on the street now we have no one, it makes me wonder what we are paying our council tax for?? This is a disgusting act and the culprits need to be caught and dealt with and when i say dealt with i mean by a constable and the full power of the law.
Should be a mandatory jail sentence
You would have thought so – clearly this supports what we have been saying on these forums for ages ie: there is NO Police presence and they have lost the battle on the streets
I find it amazing that some people find it amusing to pelt emergency service personnel with stones when they are trying to do a job. Have we really evolved into a society that allows this sort of thing. Obviously we have….
These yobs have no respect for anyone these days
They should have turned the hoses on them.
I agree with that – surely its a reasonable form of self defence – plus it would be easy to identify the culprits as they would be soaking wet !
I have to wonder why CCBC hadn’t dismantled the Lansbury Park fire collection beforehand. It was full of rubber and plastic…It’s flytipping, leaving it for the Fire Service to manage is not a good use of public money, puts them at unnecessary risk and evidences a very poor duty of care to the local neighbourhood. Shame on CCBC….it happens every year..in my world that demands a full risk management strategy??