Emergency services were pelted with bricks when they were called to a Bradford recreation ground on Bonfire Night – a report has revealed.
Fire crews were called out to 82 incidents in the Bradford District over the period, with Bradford city centre and Keighley West being the biggest hotspots.
Six of these incidents involved fire and police crews being attacked with either bricks, stones or fireworks.
Details of this year’s Bonfire Period will be discussed by Councillors from across West Yorkshire at a meeting of the West Yorkshire Fire Authority on Friday.
Members will be told that the number of incidents over the Bonfire Period – which this year was classed as between 30 October and 12 November, had fallen in recent years, with 2023 continuing this trend.
Other sections of the report look at the main Bonfire period – 4 and 5 November.
Although Leeds was the area with the highest number of incidents in this period, with Little London and Woodhouse being hotspots, Bradford saw the highest number of attacks on emergency service crews, with six out of the nine attacks seen in West Yorkshire happening in the District.
These included:
- An incident at Girlington recreation ground, when crews were attacked with bricks
- Firefighters being attacked with fireworks on Arrum Street, on the Canterbury Estate, Great Horton Road and Lower Grange Close
- A call to Undercliffe Lane where crews were attacked with bricks
Over the two nights across West Yorkshire crews responded to 260 incidents. Of these 96 were fires, 72 were labelled “Bonfire related”, 130 were false alarms and 34 were non-fire incidents.
Leeds had the most, with 88 incidents, followed by Bradford with 82.
Little London and Woodhouse in Leeds had the most incidents – 10, followed by the City ward in Bradford (9) and Keighley West (9).
Members will be told of the work done in the lead-up to the Bonfire period to try and prevent the disorder and anti-social behaviour that has plagued Bradford and Leeds over recent years.
This included a media campaign with Bradford City Football Club and an interview with Fire bosses on news broadcasts and Steph’s Packed Lunch.
In Bradford, the campaign included educational videos warning young people about the dangers of fireworks, work with students at Pupil Referral Units and a deep dive into data collected from previous years’ Bonfire periods.
The report adds: “Data on antisocial behaviour and firefighter attacks from the past three years highlighted areas including Bradford Moor, Tong, Humblewood, Thornbury, Great Horton, Royds, City, Manningham and Bowling & Barkerend.
“This information was shared in the build-up to the bonfire period with Ward officers, community calmers and district police teams to reduce escalation and ASB behaviour which can lead to firefighter attacks.
“This allowed all partners to engage and build relations with those that live within the areas, this included specific youth groups by actively engaging with young people, we believe that those who may consider causing ASB or attacking firefighters are less likely to do so when they know us by name.”
