Fire crews work with schools before Bonfire Night

Imran Ali says crews from West Yorkshire Fire Service are working on prevention and education ahead of Bonfire Night

Fire crews have targeted schools with safety messages ahead of this year's Bonfire Night celebrations.

Imran Ali, who is bonfire lead for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS), said work to educate children as well as the wider community began months ago.

Last year, between 3-5 November, WYFRS crews attended 105 fires and 60 additional call-outs where people thought bonfires were out of control.

Mr Ali said: "We start our initial meetings in January. The first group working that goes on with our partners starts in the early spring."

"Throughout the year we build up to the bonfire period, where we start providing education to our community, our schools, providing fire safety advice to anybody that we can really deliver that to," he said.

Moor fires are now making summers the busiest time for fire crews in West Yorkshire

Mr Ali, who is assistant district commander for Bradford, said despite the number of fires, it was not the peak of demand on the service.

"It's an extremely busy period, though, where we get a lot of incidents, a lot of fire calls in relation to bonfires and fireworks," he said.

"The busiest times are July and August, purely because of the weather, I think.

"A lot of our busiest times are during that time when children aren't at school and the weather is extremely hot.

"We are at wildfire incidents for long periods of time, so that's normally our busiest period."

The senior firefighter said attacks on fire crews had fallen during the Bonfire Night period last year and that the trend continued to move downwards.

Sarah Baker, West Yorkshire Police's assistant chief constable, in charge of the force's response to Bonfire Night, said there would be an increased presence from officers out and about.

She added: “Bonfire Night is historically one of the busiest nights of the year for the emergency services and people are urged to consider this when calling us."

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