Fire chief warns against bonfire night attacks

Asst chief officer Lewis Ramsay warned police will take such crimes seriously

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has said that it will not tolerate any violence towards crews on bonfire night after staff were targeted at events last year.

The fifth of November is the busiest day of the year for fire crews, with 970 incidents in 2016.

Last year, a crew in Ayrshire were targeted twice within hours when missiles were thrown.

Asst chief officer Lewis Ramsay warned police will take such crimes seriously.

He said: "This type of behaviour not only prevents our crews from bringing any emergency to a safe and swift conclusion, but it can impact on our emergency service colleagues, including the police, when they have to escort us at the scene. This cannot be condoned."

At an unoffical event in Ardrossan last year, an item was thrown from the crowd leading to police escorting crews to extinguish the fire.

Two hours earlier, the same team were attacked in a similar incident.

"Our firefighters' main purpose is to save lives. You can rest assured that they will always be there and standing on the front line to help at times of emergency.

"I would like to take this opportunity to stress once again that this will not be tolerated because our firefighters absolutely do not deserve to be met with such behaviour."