Stafford MP, Jeremy Lefroy has praised the work of the Fire and Rescue service following the release of new incident numbers.
Stafford area Fire and Rescue crews (based at Stafford, Rising Brook and Penkridge), attended 713 incidents in 2017/18. Of these 132 were primary fires, 81 road traffic accidents, 86 secondary fires (bin, grass or outbuilding fires) and 117 special service calls (e.g. animal or water rescues). There were 295 false alarms, of which 18 were with malicious intent. Officers also carried out 2,339 Safe and Well visits to fit smoke alarms, and to give advice and reassurance.
Commenting, Jeremy said: “These figures show the wide range of the work which our Fire and Rescue Service carries out in the Stafford and Penkridge area, both in fighting and preventing fires.
“The increase in secondary fires, such as bin fires started deliberately, has resulted in the ‘Flames aren’t Games’ campaign. Deliberately causing fires or raising an alarm with malicious intent are crimes which will be taken very seriously as they divert firefighters away from their work of keeping our communities safe.”
Jeremy recently attended an event at Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service HQ in Pirehill celebrating the achievements of young people on the Stafford Team 12 Prince’s Trust programme - delivered by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service. The young people’s achievements during the course include completing a camping residential where the young people did a 10k hike and a community project where they created a video in partnership with Staffordshire police.