Appeal after 'deliberate' fires at country park

A fire service is appealing for information after a series of "deliberate" fires at a country park in the past week.

Firefighters have attended blazes at Park Hall Country Park on Hulme Road in Stoke-on-Trent.

Ben Sourbutts, from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service said there had been 137 deliberate fires in total so far in July across the wider county, some of which had taken "considerable resources" to put out.

"This is a period of considerable resource use for us, and an increased level of incidents cross the city and the county as a whole," he said.

"These deliberate fires that we're experiencing obviously take our resources and our firefighters away from vital and potentially life-threatening incidents that we do need to be responding to."

There had been a significant increase in the number of grass fires, wildfires and outdoor fires during the recent dry and hot weather.

Last year had seen a 70% increase on the year before, he said, and a further increase was expected this year too.

"Many of these fires are accidental and they're caused by carelessness. They're caused by the dropping of litter, the dropping of cigarettes, the use of barbecues [and] disposal of garden waste through small bonfires.

"Because we've had this extra hot and dry weather these fires can become out of control extremely easily."

He said that while firefighters understood people wanted to enjoy the nice weather, knowing the pressure this caused for the emergency services put a different perspective on the summer months.

He urged people with information to contact the police with any information about deliberate fires to bring those responsible to justice.

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