Take care with fires and barbecues

2:27pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

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FIREFIGHTERS in Bury have asked residents to be considerate when lighting fires or barbecues in their gardens during the hot spell.

A crew from Bury station was called out seven times on Friday evening by residents concerned that neighbours' fires were getting out of control.

Firemen have now appealed for people to be considerate when lighting fires in their gardens and to make sure their fires are safe.

Crew Manager Mike Barrett said: "With the warm weather a lot of people have been having barbecues but people have also been lighting small campfires in their back yards.

"Because of the lack of breeze the smoke tends to stay in the area and build up so it starts to bother neighbours who have their windows open because of the heat. People need to be considerate. They need to make sure they avoid burning plastics or any toxic materials and that they do not leave fire unattended.

"People having barbecues also need to make sure they follow correct safety procedures and place their barbecues away from buildings and fences and out of reach of children.

"We will turn out when we get a complaint from other residents because if someone is phoning an incident in it is because they feel the fire is getting out of control.

"A lot of the time the fire is not actually causing a problem, in which case we will just make sure it is under control and give safety advice, but, if necessary, we will extinguish the fire."