Work to tackle deliberate fires in Annandale and Eskdale paying off

There has been a 15 per cent reduction in incidents are firefighters visited high schools to share information

Proactive work to educate youths about the dangers of deliberate fires appears to be bearing fruit in Annandale and Eskdale.

Firefighters have visited various high schools in the district to share information around firesetting, derelict buildings and water safety.

Over the past year, there has been a 15 per cent reduction in the number of deliberate fires.

This was confirmed in the fire service operations annual report for April 2023-March 2024, which will be presented at Annandale and Eskdale area committee next week.

Colin Wallace, the Annandale and Eskdale District Commander, wrote in the report: “It is pleasing to report that deliberate fire setting has seen a reduction of 15 percent across Annandale and Eskdale with crews attending a total of 28 deliberate fires.

“This decrease is testament to the engagement work carried out in the community by the CAT (community action team) and local crews.

“Input on the dangers of deliberate fires was delivered at Langholm and Lockerbie Academy schools prior to the school holidays with 128 and 423 people attending respectively.

“Subjects such as water safety, dangers of deliberate fires and derelict buildings were covered.

“Information was also shared with Annan and Moffat Academy staff for distribution to all students and parents.

“In Annandale and Eskdale, 72 percent of all deliberate fires were classed as secondary, with the remainder consisting of outdoor buildings, vehicles and grassland.”

The fire chief has also described a reduction in nearly all types of incidents over the past year as “very encouraging”.

He will share the various positive trends with councillors at next week’s area committee

Mr Wallace’s report reads: “Overall, there has been a 17 percent reduction on the total number of incidents reported within the Annandale and Eskdale district, with reductions in all special services and false alarms, by 14 percent and 23 percent respectively.

“There was a very slight increase in non-domestic fires, which rose from 12 to 14 incidents, involving a variety of property categories including four garden sheds.

“All other incident KPI (key performance indicators) were down in numbers for this reporting period.

“It is very pleasing to note that there has been a substantial decrease in the number of fire casualties from 2022-23 within the Annandale and Eskdale District with no fatal fire fatalities and the number of non-fatal fire fatalities falling by 40 per cent.”

Of the two accidental house fires in Annandale and Eskdale last year, the householders suffered minor injuries.

One incident in Annan involved a pan with cooking oil going on fire, leading to superficial burns to the casualty’s hands which were treated at the scene.

The other incident occurred in Moffat where the householder suffered “very slight smoke inhalation” from a kitchen fire.

Special services callouts – where firefighters assist other emergency services – dropped 112 to 96.

The fire service report states: “There were 19 casualties suffering unintentional injury and harm, 15 of these casualties were due to road traffic incidents.

“Sadly, firefighters have attended three incidents with fatalities involved, including a road traffic collision on the A75 Annan

bypass involving two fatalities, and a fatality on the railway line at an incident near Kettleholm.

“There was another fatality at an incident in Langholm where SFRS crews attended to assist SAS (Scottish Ambulance Service) colleagues as medical first responders.”

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