By Andrew Pickens
Evening News (Edinburgh, England)
Thugs struck a firefighter on the head with a rock after luring crews into a trap during a spate of attacks on the fire services in Edinburgh last night.
The firefighter was only saved from serious injury by his protective helmet during the ambush in Liberton. It was one of four attacks in a three-hour blitz in the Lothians in which crews were pelted with rocks and verbally abused as they answered 999 calls to put out malicious fires.
In another incident in Niddrie, a gang of youths jumped on a fire engine and tried to remove its ladder before hurling abuse at firefighters who had just put out a rubbish fire. Union leaders and fire chiefs today condemned the attacks and were bracing themselves for more assaults during the busy
Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night period.
Gavin Barrie, of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “We are facing this type of thing more and more and despite the best efforts of politicians to introduce legislation to protect emergency staff, we still have to catch and convict the people that are doing this.
“If we need to go down the route of more CCTV on the appliances then that is what we’ll have to do but that money would be better spent on fire prevention. It is just so frustrating that these people throwing the rocks don’t realise they might need the help of those firefighters one day.”
In the first incident in Wester Hailes, a gang of youths attacked firefighters tackling blazing rubbish in Wester Hailes Park at around 7.30pm.
Then firefighters came under attack from stone-throwing youths in Riddochhill Road, Bathgate, when a wheelie bin was set on fire, forcing crews to call police for protection as they put out the blaze at around 8.20pm.
Just 40 minutes later, a firefighter was hit on the head with a rock in Peveril Terrace, Liberton, as he and his colleagues tried to put out a bonfire. It is thought the gang had started the fire in a deliberate bid to target crews.
Firefighters were also subjected to verbal abuse as mobs of youngsters jumped on their appliance in Hay Drive, Niddrie, at around 9.50pm.
The attacks come despite greater efforts by Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service to cut down on the number of firefighters assaulted on duty.
Recent figures showed that there had been 17 attacks on firefighters in the year to August 2006, half the number of incidents in the same period last year.
Fire engines were fitted with CCTV cameras in three of the areas where attacks were most common; Sighthill, Newcraighall and Livingston, in an attempt to deter youngsters from attacking fire crews.
In the whole of 2005, there were 82 reports of firefighters in the Lothians being attacked with weapons including guns, darts and bottles. Newcraighall, where one of last night’s attacks happened, is still the Lothians’ main problem area.
Roddy Robertson, Scottish chair of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “These kind of incidents come as no surprise whatsoever. It is good and well introducing a bill to take action against offenders but we really need to get to the root of the problem and why they’re doing it in the first place.
“It takes a lot of time to get into the affected areas and work with youth clubs and schools and establish why they are doing what they are doing.
“The problem remains prevalent in Edinburgh and in all of the Scottish cities. The fire service is making massive steps and they have improved community involvement a lot in the last three or four years but it takes a long time to see the results of that.”
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “Although it may seem fun to jump on the back of an appliance as it is leaving the scene, it is extremely dangerous and could result in serious injury to young people. Above all, we want to keep people safe and young people making malicious calls and attacking firefighters while they are trying to do their jobs make this very difficult.”
Fire Board convenor, councillor Ken Harrold, said: “It is very disappointing to hear about any attacks on firefighters, never mind four in one evening. We take these very seriously and we’ll do everything within our powers to try to cut out these incidents.
“We are trying to make people aware of how stupid and senseless this kind of thing is.”