Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service are urging the public to stay safe ahead of bonfire night
Last year firefighters from the service tackled 76 deliberate fires throughout bonfire night
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service are urging people to think about the consequences before starting a deliberate fire in the lead up to Bonfire night.
They say every year, their crews attend thousands of deliberate fires, draining resources and potentially delaying responses to life-threatening emergencies.
Terry Griffin, Safety Education Manager for Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said: "The bonfire period is a high demand for the fire service in general. We know we've still got business as usual to carry on with. We would always respond to life risk, but we've also got a high demand responding to lots of incidents. It's more the antisocial behaviour incidents. People just think it's a time where you can go and set fire to anything you want. It's not, it never has been.
"We don't want anyone not to have a good time. That's not the point of what we're trying to get away from. We just want everyone to have a safe time and that goes for our members of the public. We are members of the public as well. You know, we've got kids, wives, girlfriends, husbands, etc, and we deserve to go home and not be attacked when we respond to these incidents as well.
"We can only be in one place at once, we've only got so many fire engines. They can only go to so many incidents. So, if something is on fire, that's not meant to be on fire, that's taking us away from our business of keeping others safe.
"Just because its bonfire period doesn't mean that people still don't have RTC or road traffic collisions. People still need our help in other ways, and if our resources are taken up dealing with the increased demand from anti-social fires. Then it's going to have an impact on the service.
"Attend the proper organised events. If you're in any doubt about anything, Ring 999 and we will respond. There are different strategies in process of how we respond, and we will always respond to life risk. But I think the main key message really would be know what your young children and young adults are up to and please attend the organised events because they'll be the safest ones to be going to."