Firefighters called to 58 fires over Bank Holiday weekend

Staffordshire's fire crews received more than 50 call-outs to fires over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Figures from Staffordshire Fire & Rescue showed they logged 58 calls to a variety of blazes across the county.

The call-outs took place between 5pm on May 22 to midnight on May 26 – with more than 360 firefighters tackling various blazes.

More than 70 members of the fire service also turned out to tackle a fire covering 15 hectares of Cannock Chase on Friday. The blaze damaged a large area of Sherbrook Valley.

Most of the fires were caused as a result of people not disposing of rubbish safely – or by having barbecues in unsafe areas.

Deputy chief fire officer Rob Barber said: "Our crews work tirelessly to ensure that our communities are kept safe and that our rural areas are protected from the devastation caused by fire.

"This most recent Bank Holiday weekend saw our firefighters tackle some challenging incidents – some of which were not helped by people failing to dispose of their waste responsibly.

"Fire can spread very quickly and we have seen recent examples where fires have been started and spread – causing harm to local wildlife, habitats and also damaging homes and buildings – injuring people as a direct result of burning waste and rubbish."