Date: 10/2/07
Author: Bury Times Reporter
Source: Bury Times

FIRE engines at Bury and Whitefield stations have been fitted with CCTV cameras to film any attacks on crews.

Last year, there were 248 reported attacks on firefighters across Greater Manchester, six of them in the borough.

It is hoped that fitting CCTV on engines will help to capture images of those involved.

Each engine now has a high quality fixed mounted camera which will record digital images of all sides of the vehicle. They are switched on whenever the engine is in use and footage is passed to the police.

Bury's crime and disorder reduction partnership has paid £6,000 for the installation of the cameras on the borough's fire tenders. Ramsbottom's engine will be equipped with CCTV in the near future.

County fire ffficer Barry Dixon, head of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) has welcomed the introduction of the cameras.

He said: "It is sad that we have to go to these lengths to safeguard our firefighters, who are just trying to carry out their job of saving lives and protecting the public.

"We hope, that by introducing CCTV equipment on our fire engines across Greater Manchester, that we will be able to capture images of those carrying out these unacceptable attacks on our crews."

During recent trials of the cameras, footage of an attack on firefighters in Rochdale was used to convict the offenders.

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