Firefighters busier tackling deliberate firs across Tayside in spring than other times of year

The latest figures reveal more incidents between March and April in 2017 than the previous year.

Published 16th Mar 2018

More deliberate fires are being set in Dundee at this time of year compared to Bonfire Night, according to fire fighters in the city.

Tay News is looking into the issue after new stats revealed a rise in incidents across Tayside.

There were 236 in the region from March to April in 2017, compared to 175 the previous year.

Craig Thompson, from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, incidents like this have a big impact: "It is really disappointing to see these numbers on the rise.

“We spend a lot of time trying to educate young people about the dangers of fire setting and how that has an impact on the environment.

“It is a big rise in demand.

“We would much rather be going to do community education, promoting home safety messages rather than attending needless fires.

“We have five people in every fire engine, so that adds money to these things - the damage caused and the replacement of things like wheelie bins all adds up to being quite a significant cost."