Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Yob teen gang attacks Telford firefighters
Friday 18th March 2011, 11:20AM GMT.
Firefighters were attacked by a gang of teenagers who hurled fence posts at the crew as they attempted to deal with a blaze in Stirchley Park, Telford.
The youths, aged between 14 and 16, are believed to have started the fire by setting light to beds and furniture.
Fire crews were forced to stand down until police arrived after being targeted by the gang at 9.40pm yesterday.
Fire chiefs today hit out at the “mindless” gang and said it was lucky no-one was injured.
Watch manager Neil Maguire, from Tweedale fire station, said the attack was the second time in two days his crew has been abused by teenagers in the park.
Mr Maguire said: “On both nights we have been met by a small group of youths who verbally abused us. But last night there was threatening abuse with wooden fencing thrown at us, although thankfully no-one was hit.
“It’s a mindless group of five or six youths, aged about 14 to 16, who seem to have no fear of us turning up.”
Mr Maguire said neighbours reported the material had been stolen from their gardens.
Mr Maguire added: “We do a risk assessment and the policy we have is that we’ll attend but call police and if there’s any danger to crews we’ll retire and we will not put ourselves at risk. Officers came last night, made inquiries and took names.”
Residents have been warned not to leave any property on show in gardens and to keep wheelie bins away from their homes.
Mr Maguire added: “People need to be extra vigilant and ensure their properties are secure and leave nothing outside.”
West Mercia Police confirmed officers were called to Stirchley Park last night but said no arrests were made.
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What a bunch of mindless morons. Do the have a brain cell between them.A strech in Big Boys jail would do a bit of good.
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The yobs would of soon of changed their mind if the firefighters was there to put them out if they was on fire.
Youths of today need shooting or put on a course to keep them off the streets.
Not enough groups for them to attend and keep them off the streets. Also this may prove that the fly tipping in the area is bad too.
Maybe the council should try and tackle this too.
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Such a shame is it not that the hoses can’t be turned on these little scumbags?
One can but dream I suppose.
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If the firefighters are being treated this way then give them the right to give the said gang a good soaking with the water from the fire hose and no come back to the firefighters. Its no good a member of this gang coming forward with a complaint neither. Our firefighters do a great job and risk life and limb for people.
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They should be allowed to turn the hose on the little beggars.
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I agree with what people are saying here turn the hose on the yobs when they come forward with a complaint hey presto arrest them for arson!
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I was a Firefighter with Shropshire for many years. Many times we were faced with verbal and physical abuse. It became part of the job, We did once turn a hose reel in “self defence” :). Whilst making up our equipment they came back with a garden fork. It really isn’t/wasn’t worth retaliating. I personlly don’t understand why they feel the need to go to the Newspaper about this though. It’s not as if it never happens.
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Those youths are just human garbage with nothing else to entertain their small brains. They should be locked up for sec 4 public order and stand in front of a youth court. The firefighters do a tremendous job as do all the emergency services. In a few years time, those youths will be lining up to collect their dole money…..
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A Good Horsewhipping that’s what these poor excuses for humans deserve.
Soak them with the hoses….lol id go one further and drown them in the river seven!!!
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our wonderfull fire men should be able to defend them selfs when they are doing there job and if that means meeting force with force then so be it then lets see how brave the mindless yobs are
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Mindless bunch of morons,kids running out of control,what are the parents doing about this?
One month in an old style borstal should do the trick,we have got to stop the softly softly approach.
Bring the parents to account as well jail them for a month.
If you can’t take reponsibility for you’re kids don’t have them in the first place.
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As we all know, in reality it doesn’t matter how hard the police work to track these morons down, the lilly livered judicial system will do nothing with them (thats if the Criminals Protection Service had the guts to prosecute in the first place)
I’m with the ‘turn the fire hoses on them’ fraternity – come on Shropshire Star put that as one of your readers polls and see what the local community really thinks … Question: Should Firefighters be allowed to turn fire hoses on mindless morons who attack them whilst trying to do their duty? YES or NO ???
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These youths should be made to realise what they are doing!! Firefighters put themselves in enough risks without this!! Turn the hose on them i say!!!
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The firemen should have the right, if under attack to use the water hose to protect themselves, and to carry out the duty they that they have been called out to do.
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Shropsman, Can I be the first one in the long Queue to participate?
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In relpy john can I be second In fact give me a hose
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I agree with most of the “Turn the hose on them” comments. Britain needs to stop waisting time with these sort of Kids, Yes there parents are to blame, but they too probably havn’t got a brain between them, they should also be hauled before a judge too and be held responsible for their off springs behaviour, and the sentence should be to bag the lot of ‘em up and burn them. these scum bags are nothing but a burden to everyone who is honest and can be bothered to earn a living. Ok may be bagging them up and burning them will not be allowed, but lets use lottery money to build new prisons, just the bare bones of four sqaure cold brick walls and nive big iron bars for a front door, feed them just enough to keep them alive, and treat them like animals, couple of years of that and that will sort them out, they wont be committing acts of stupidty again. If they do send em back for more, if they dont learn, then keep them their, and use next weeks lottery money to build another bare bricks prison.
Ohhh the dream….. if i could just be prime minister for the day.
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I’m not too sure why anyone is bothering to even ask whether the fire crews should turn their hoses on the little *******s – the answer is obviously yes – if nothing else they have the right to use reasonable force to defend themselves.
It would be interesting to know how much of the material was really “stolen from their gardens” and how much had been fly tipped, but that still doesn’t excuse the potentially lethal behaviour of these useless little vermin.
A few years ago lighting fires in the back gardens of empty houses then attacking the fire crews was a regular event on one of the Telford estates, but it soon died out when the then Chief Fire Officer told his men to turn their hoses on the culprits (many of those watching and cheering them on were so-called adults).
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