By Krysta Eaves
The Evening Gazette
CLEVELAND, U.K. — An arson attack on a wood recycling business which took firefighters nine days to put out cost taxpayers almost £750,000 ($1.16 million).
Cleveland Fire Brigade revealed the sum four months after the major fire at Jigsaw Wood Recycling Plant at Port Clarence. A total of 24 fire appliances attended the blaze, which was started deliberately on Saturday March 10.
Firefighters worked around the clock for nine days — spending a total of 2,808 hours at the scene.
Eight days were spent getting the fire under control with the other day to damp down. At its height 10 crews were at the scene, with water being pumped directly out of the River Tees.
Five arrests were made since the incident but these people were released without charge.
In total, the bill for handling the fire was £741,492.90. The figure was revealed after Cleveland Fire Brigade launched its Enough is Enough, campaign to stamp out arson.
Last year there were 3,029 deliberate fires in Cleveland costing taxpayers almost £17m.
Phil Lancaster, director of community protection with Cleveland Fire Brigade, said: “The fire at the Jigsaw plant demonstrates just how much arson is costing Cleveland Fire Brigade and ultimately the taxpayers of Cleveland.
“This is money and time we would much prefer to be spending on fire prevention to prevent injury and save lives throughout Cleveland.”
He added that “arson ruins lives.”
Mr Lancaster said: “Why should the people of this area put up with this sort of behaviour? “Deliberate lighting of any fires will not and should not be tolerated by anyone and we have this message — we are watching you and you will be caught.”
Cleveland Police has now warned that arson can carry a sentence of life imprisonment.
Assistant Chief Constable Dave Pickard said: “Where it is considered that an offence could have endangered life we will not hesitate in pursuing this through the courts and the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.”
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