Life-saving equipment stolen from fire station

The burglary happened at Ferndown Fire Station

Life-saving equipment was stolen from a fire engine leaving its crew unavailable to attend incidents.

The break-in happened at Ferndown Fire Station on Ringwood Road, between 08:45 BST on Friday and 09:00 on Saturday, causing damage to the building and resulting in a reciprocating saw and Halligan tool - used by firefighters to force entry - being taken.

PC Georgia Hedditch, of Dorset Police, described it as a "senseless burglary" that "resulted in the fire service being deprived of a potentially life-saving asset".

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was "very saddened" by theft.

PC Hedditch said the force was "carrying out a number of inquiries" and urged any witnesses or those with dashcam, home CCTV or doorbell camera footage to come forwards.

Jason Moncrieff, area manager of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We are very saddened that this has happened at one of our fire stations.

"The impact was greater than the loss of two pieces of equipment, it meant the Ferndown crew were unavailable to attend incidents for much of Saturday, and we now have to use public money to buy replacement items.

"The offenders also damaged part of the fire station to get in, which has now been repaired, again at a cost to public funding."