UPDATED: The Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service have tonight (Saturday) responded to 2 separate incidents within 15 minutes of one another.
At around 23:00 crews from Newport and Shanklin were called to a reported fire near Sandown Airport, but it was quickly established that it was in fact controlled burning – a bonfire.
By 23:15 – just 15 minutes later – firefighters on the other side of the Island were mobilised to a bin fire in Seaview.
This time there’s was cause for concern and the single crew from Ryde used a hose reel to extinguish the small fire.
Tonight’s call out to Sandown comes following an apparent recent spike in bonfires taking place on the Island. Anyone preparing to light a bonfire/controlled burning is urged to inform the fire service to stop unnecessary mobilisations.
UPDATE SUNDAY – Firefighters were called out to no less than 4 other small fires overnight.
Shanklin’s retained crew were called out to St Urians, Lake at 01:20 to extinguish a bin fire. Just a short while later, at 01:42, they were remobilised to Sandown Road, Lake where another bin was discovered to be on fire.
Just a couple of hours later firefighters were sent to York Road, Sandown at 03:55 to extinguish a pile of rubbish that was slight in the open.
Newport’s wholetime appliance was also mobilised during the early hours of this morning to a skip fire in York Road, Newport at 04:58.
With a heatwave incoming the number of small, preventable fires is expected to rise in the coming days.
