Cleveland fire crews 'trapped and attacked' by young arsonists

Crews in Cleveland were attacked 75 times in the last year, the highest in a decade

Fires are being started deliberately to "trap" and attack life-saving crews, a senior firefighter has warned.

Over the past 12 months Cleveland crews were attacked 75 times in the service area, the highest in 10 years.

Martin Challoner, from Coulby Newham, said colleagues had bricks and bottles thrown at them and were spat at.

"If I walked through in my civilian clothing I wouldn't expect anyone to give me the abuse that I suffer in my uniform," he told BBC Radio Tees.

Watch manager Mr Challoner, who has been with his Middlesbrough-based team for more than 20 years, said it can be "quite intimating and scary" for those deployed.

He said wheelie bins and rubbish fires would be set to get crews into specific areas as "small or large traps".

"Not only am I watching the fire or the incident that's in front of me I am watching for youths and other people coming into the area throwing bricks and rocks at us while I am trying to deal with the emergency at the same time."

Cleveland Police also reported 753 recorded assaults on police officers over the past 12 months, with most happening in town centre areas.

The fire station in Coulby Newham has in the past been opened up to the public as part of community engagement activities.

"Most of the people in these areas are good people - they are good communities - but we have a small amount of people within these communities causing bother which is frustrating," Mr Challoner said.

"Once these pumps are committed to an incident we don't get to see what else is coming in, our control has to mobilise a pump from another area which then extends our response times.

"If someone is involved in a major incident, a fire, a road traffic collision, these minutes and seconds make a massive difference."