Fire crews in West Lothian were not called out to any incidents on Bonfire Night, it has been revealed, as the service hailed work to reduce the number of incidents.
West Lothian saw a 30% drop in deliberate fires and a 45% drop in deliberate rubbish blazes over the bonfire period last year compared to 2021.
Area Commander Kenny Barbour told West Lothian Council’s Community Safety Board that fire crews had not been called to any incidents on bonfire night across the county.
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He added: “It’s a great news story. I think we have seen the strength of community Safety Partnership in West Lothian.
“There was a 53 incident reduction in terms of our attendance at events from 2021 and if we look at a rough costing we have probably made a community saving there of £106,000.”
The number of deliberate fires over the bonfire period, 15 October to 7 November, in 2017 was 75. That dropped to 62 in 2021 and 47 last year
In a report to the board the SFRS said that Fire Community Action Teams had returned to face to face engagement with school pupils following the lifting of lockdown restrictions.
Fire officers took their stay safe message to almost 6000 pupils at secondary school assemblies whilst SFRS operational crews delivered the learning materials to P6 and P7 pupils across West Lothian.
The report said: “The presentations were also shared with all schools so that they could be delivered by teachers using the provided speakers notes if necessary. Positive feedback was received from schools both on the content and delivery of the presentations.”
Police Scotland and SFRS conducted joint talks to groups attending the West Lothian Youth Action Project (WLYAP) from schools across West Lothian to help reach those not fully engaging with mainstream education.
The fire service also worked with Police Scotland and community groups such as the Blackburn Bonfire Night Action Group in the run up to and during the bonfire night period which the service categorises as to 7 November.
Work was also carried out liaison with council officers working for Trading Standards checking firework sales and with staff from the Neighbourhood Environment Teams (NETS) identifying and removing potentially dangerous accumulations of rubbish and hazardous materials and illegal bonfires.
Mr Barbour told the Board meeting: “Between ourselves and partners we engaged with almost 6000 school pupils As we transitioned out of Covid I think we began to see the great strength of face to face engagement.
Certainly not one organisation or partner could do this on their own and I think the strength demonstrated across that has been fantastic,
Media messaging has also played a significant part, I sometimes have a fear of using media messages but I think on this occasion it is evident that media messaging was a great tool to utilise.”
The SFRS report concluded: “SFRS and Police Scotland carried out a joint patrol on 5th November to identify and assess bonfires to reduce the demand on front line appliances. Regular contact was made with Police Control and SFRS Control which enabled the joint patrol to respond quickly to and assess reports of bonfires which significantly reduced the demand on front line appliances allowing them to be available and deployed where needed most.
“The SFRS and Police joint patrol were in regular contact with WLYAP and WLC Safer Neighbourhood Teams, sharing intelligence, providing advice and responding to identified incidents.”
Kirsteen Sullivan is depute leader of the council and a councillor for Blackburn which in the past has been plagued by bonfire night anti- social behaviour and criminality.
She told the meeting: “This is really welcome. I think in the past few years we have been quite nervous that perhaps the downturn has been because of the pandemic and sometimes its weather related.
“I think we are starting to see a bit of a downward trend in anti-social and criminal behaviour around this period. I think that was largely down to the partnership working and the fact that all partners engage way ahead of bonfire night and a deliberate strategy on how to prevent incidents on the evening itself. I think this has been a success in West Lothian so thanks to yourself and your officers and all the partners for their hard work in this.”
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