Stamping Out Deliberate Fires During The Easter Holidays

The North Wales Arson Reduction Team is appealing to residents to help stamp out deliberate fire starting during the Easter holidays.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has been working hard to drive down the incidence of all deliberate fires over recent years – but as the nights get lighter and the weather becomes warmer, there is often a rise in the number of deliberately set fires.

During March and April the fire and rescue service still attends more call outs to deliberate fires than at any other time of the year.

Driving down deliberate fires has involved a concerted effort through a variety of initiatives including partnership working with other agencies such as through the work of the joint Arson Reduction Team with North Wales Police, youth engagement through the Phoenix Project, as well as a range of targeted safety campaigns.

Due to these efforts there has been a significant 68% reduction in deliberate fire setting in the last ten years and there has been a continuous downward trend during the last four years – with a substantial drop in the number of all deliberate fires attended: from 353 cases of deliberate fires between 1st March and 30th April in 2011, to 258 incidents in 2012, decreasing to 166 incidents in 2013, and more recently reducing again to 153 incidents in 2014.

Kevin Jones, Arson Reduction Manager said: “This continuous decrease is good news, we have been working tirelessly to tackle this issue over recent years and have seen a substantial drop in the number of incidents attended.

“But we rely on parents and members of the community to work with us to drive home the messages on the consequences of deliberate fires – so we are appealing to the community to help us ensure the numbers of deliberate fires are kept to a minimum over the Easter period when we know the numbers tend to peak.

“Deliberate fires place tremendous pressure on resources, with our crews tied up for a considerable length of time trying to bring them under control, which in turn prevents firefighters from attending life threatening incidents.