Behind The Scenes On Bonfire Night
Bonfire Night is one of the busiest nights of the year for our region’s fire crews.
We decided to send our reporter Charlotte Murphy to the Emergency Control Room at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue HQ in Sunderland.
The team took in 306 calls for the full 24 hour period of November 5th, compared to around 390 last year.
Reports ranged from bonfires, house fires and normal incidents such as gas leaks and road traffic collisions.
Andrew Bays is the Station Manager. He said:
“When somebody joins the control room this is the type of night that they joined for. To take calls and help the public.”
“We’re got to make sure than we obtain the right information from a caller and make sure that gets to the responding crews, crucially whilst they’re on route to an incident so that they know what they’re responding to and they can prepare on the way there.”
Natalie Old is Watch Manager for the Green Watch. She said:
“We’re not actually as busy as I’ve known it to be in previous years. I’ve known some years the 999 lines have never stopped ringing for six or seven hours straight. I think a lot of people understand the risk more now, they go and see the organised events which are the more sensible thing to do.”
Now bonfire night is notoriously busy for call handlers but this year but looking at the figures the team believe it's easing off.
They put this down to better awareness and education as well as an increased presence on social media by the fire service to keep the public in the know.