Anti social fire crime gets a new kind of intervention!
Warwickshire County Councils Fire and Rescue Service and Warwickshire Police have launched the Anti Social Fire Intervention Team.
It will jointly tackle the problem fires and anti social behaviour in Nuneaton and Bedworth - and has been created to deal with incidents relating to nuisance small fires within the local community.
The Pilot will run for 10 weeks and will mean that rather than sending a fire appliance to persistent small fires, such as park bins, post boxes and grassed areas, ASFIT will be mobilised to put out the fire using specialist equipment.
This is expected to reduce the thrill factor persistent young fire setters get when seeing an appliance turn out to put out the fire.
As a result of a successful multi agency youth engagement pilot scheme in that area, the enhanced responsibilities of ASFIT mean that some small fires will be extinguished by the operational fire fighters on board.
Community Fire Safety Manager, Maria Smedley said:
“The main aim of this pilot scheme is to change the way small nuisance fires in the area are attended. In the past we have sent a fire appliance out to these types of incidents, but now we will be sending a smaller vehicle with fire fighters and a Police Community Support Officer to put the fire out and deal with the perpetrators in an effective but low-key way.
"By tackling this issue as a joint agency team, means that we are able to respond quickly to deal with the anti social issues in the target areas, whilst maintaining fire cover for the purpose of responding to larger scale, more serious, incidents.”
Deputy Borough Commander, Chris Walton:
“This is a fantastic example of partnership working between the Police and Fire Service. By adopting this joint approach small anti-social fires are tackled in an appropriate manner whilst at the same time the anti-social cause of the problem is being addressed.
"This two pronged approach will help re-educate offenders and stop the unnecessary deployment of Fire appliances allowing them to focus on where they are really needed, which is protecting the community from harm.”
Portfolio Holder for Community Protection, Councillor Richard Hobbs said:
“Reducing small fires is paramount to ensuring the safety of the local community. By reducing the thrill factor of seeing an appliance turn out to these kinds of incidents, we are hoping that the number of small fires in Nuneaton and Bedworth will reduce.
"If the pilot is successful, then we will look at how the project can be rolled out across the county to help to protect the community and make Warwickshire a safer place to live.“