Firefighters to target anti-social behaviour

Cleveland Fire Brigade want to reduce deliberate fires and false alarm calls

Firefighters will work with schools in Hartlepool to help tackle anti-social behaviour.

Cleveland Fire Brigade want to reduce deliberate fires and false alarm calls over the spring and summer months, when they are most common.

They are hoping initiatives such as education campaigns and targeting fly-tippers will cut down such incidents.

Hartlepool fire station manager Carl Pattinson said: “Deliberate fires take up a huge amount of not only our time, but also our financial resources as well."

Firefighters are educating schoolchildren about deliberate fires

From April to December 2023, there were 621 deliberate fires in Hartlepool, according to recent reports from the brigade.

About 550 of these were secondary incidents, which are small outdoor fires which do not involve people or property, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Manor House ward has seen the highest number of deliberate fires, with a total of 138, followed by Rossmere with 108, Headland and Harbour with 90, and De Bruce with 53.

The latest meeting of the Safer Hartlepool Partnership heard the top three types of deliberate fires in the borough since April 2023 were loose rubbish, accounting for 352 incidents, grassland, with 105, and wheelie bins, with 60.

'Malicious calls'

Mr Pattinson said education in schools would be centred around reducing arson.

He added: “We’ve also seen a slight spike in false alarm malicious calls and false 999 calls, so our schools education coordinator will put that on the agenda to get the kids to hopefully reduce that.”

Cleveland Fire Brigade are also looking to provide community skips to help reduce fly-tipping and remove materials which could be used to start fires, as well as urging people to not leave their wheelie bins out.