Public assaults on firefighters in East Midlands double

Assaults on firefighters in the East Midlands doubled last year, according to Government figures seen by us.

There's been nearly 300 attacks on fire crews across the region over the past 5 years, with verbal abuse (213) being most commonly reported.

In total, attacks on fire and rescue services (FRS) fell last year, but instances of harassment and objects being thrown both increased.

Attacks on Leicestershire FRS crews increased, but decreased on Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire FRS crews

Total attacks directed at Leicestershire firefighters rose last year, with 31 acts of aggression in total being reported.

In comparison, there were 14 total acts of aggression towards Nottinghamshire FRS firefighters last year, and 12 against Derbyshire FRS - both figures down on 2020/21.

"I've been threated with knives and had things thrown at me"

Chair of the Fire Brigades Union in the East Midlands, Mark Stilwell, says threats are something he and his colleagues have all experienced:

'Most firefighters have seen this happen, I've certainly been threatened with knives and had things thrown at me in addition to verbal abuse, but even that's not being reported as much as it should be.'

He added that it's even causing resources to be spread more thin:

'We do sometimes get problem areas where we know that there's going to be attacks on firefighters. We will send extra resources to those places, which means somewhere else doesn't get help in as quick a time as possible.

It is frightening; it's not just localised in the East Midlands too, this is happening across the country.'

'A correlation between attacks and cuts in community funding'

Mark said he believes government funding cuts to youth work and other community services can explain the violence:

'You need to target the actual root cause of this, and this is about social deprivation and investment in the community. That has stopped it in the past, youth engagement.

It's not just about attacking firefighters it's about crime in general. That's the way to stop this, it's investment in people that need these resources.'

'The lack of funding and lack of investment in care in the community has caused issues, it's not because incidents have increased.

'A lot of incidents are related to drug problems as well which we get attacks from. It's a very broad spectrum of why these attacks are happening.'

A Home Office spokesperson said:

“Assaults on members of our emergency services are completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This is why the government doubled the maximum penalty for assaulting an emergency worker so those convicted face up to two years’ imprisonment.

“We are committed to tackling youth violence which is why we are providing police forces with additional resources to tackle crime and, since 2019, have invested over £170 million into the development of Violence Reduction Units in the 20 areas worst affected by serious violence.”

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