A South Wales fire crew was subject to verbal abuse while attending one of a spate of deliberately started blazes on Saturday.
Crews across the area reported a very busy evening, with 12 callouts to intentional fires in the space of eight hours.
The blazes all involved vehicles or refuse being set alight, and at one incident crews were subject to verbal abuse while they battled the blaze.
Fire Service area manager Martin Henderson said: “The simple truth is that the emergency services are there to help people when they most need it and people rely on a timely and coordinated response.
“That people would see them distracted from attending emergency incidents and then verbally and physically abuse them on arrival defies any sense.”
Three of the calls were in very close proximity to one other, around the village of Penrhys in the Rhondda .
The first call was came at 3.32pm when a vehicle was set on fire on Lanelay Lane in Pontyclun .
Two fires were started in the village of Penrhys in the space of 15 minutes between about 4.15pm and 4.30pm. The first was at Penrhys Cemetery with the second on Heol Ioan a few hundred yards away.
Between 6.23pm and 7.21pm three more deliberate refuse fires were reported on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil , Ystrad Mynach Park and at Duffryn Woods in Newport.
At just after 7.30pm fire crews from Roath were called to Meirion Place in Tremorfa, Cardiff , after yet another deliberate blaze.
Shortly after a fire was reported in a rugby stand in Cilfynydd and crews from Pontypridd had to attend.
Penrhys then saw its third deliberate fire of the night with a grass being set alight at the Rhondda Golf Club.
Just before 11pm crews were called to a refuse fire on Partridge Way in Duffryn, Newport . According to the fire service, crews were subjected to “verbal abuse” from youths on their arrival.
Crews from the Maindee station were the called to near Castle Bingo on Usk Way in Newport at 11pm where a fire had been started in a car park.
A very busy night was capped off just before midnight when crews from Ebbw Valehad to put out a car that had been set alight on Llangynidr Road in Beaufort.
These deliberate fires are not isolated incidents. On October 22 Wales Online reported a similarly busy night when again, 12 fires were started over the course of an evening.
Head of Joint Fire Control for South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Jennie Griffiths, said: “Whilst extinguishing a deliberately lit refuse fire our Duffryn crew were subjected to verbal abuse and anti-social behaviour (ASB) relating to further threats of arson by a group of youths.
“Whilst our crews were not physically threatened or harmed, any unacceptable behaviour shown to our crews during the course of their role will not be tolerated by South Wales Fire and Rescue and we will work with Gwent Police to address this issue.
“Our Fire Crime unit has worked hard in the area with Gwent Police and local authorities to reduce ASB and fire crime and we will continue to do so.
“The protection of our crews and the public it affects is extremely important to us. Attacking crews, including verbal abuse, is a criminal offence and we will prosecute offenders.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/fire-crew-verbally-abused-one-12271000
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