FIREFIGHTERS were stoned and had bottles thrown at their vehicle during an ambush by youths when they were lured to a rubbish fire.

Crews were attacked after being "set up" by a call to spare land off Burns Street, in the Stoneyholme area of Burnley, at 8.40pm yesterday.

As they were leaving the scene a gang of teenagers came out of a back alley in the Bedford Street area and started hurling missiles.

The youths dented the doors and back of the appliance but leading firefighter Chris Haworth warned the damage could have been much more serious and costly.

Mr Haworth said: "They had been laying in wait for us and the chances are they had started the fire and called us out to set us up.

"They were throwing bottles and large stones judging by the noise they were making on the vehicle and they could have caused a lot more damage or one of the firefighters could have been injured.

"If the appliance had to be taken off the road to be repaired then it would cause a serious problem in Burnley. If something was to happen it would take longer to get there with the obvious consequences."

The call out to the rubbish fire cost at least £300.

He said: "We didn't get a description of the youths hurling the missiles because our instructions are to leave such scenes as quickly as possible, not to stop and challenge them.

"We alerted the police to what had happened and had we got another call in Stoneyholme yesterday we would have sent two appliances regardless of what the call was for, and we would have notified the police that we were attending an incident."

Acting Inspector Mark Grey said: "We sent officers to the area to check out the incident that had been reported to us. Juvenile nuisance is an on-going problem and we constantly monitor the situation."

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