Firefighters attacked with golf balls as they tackle ‘deliberate’ blaze at nature reserve

Fire service calls incident ‘unacceptable’ and urges anyone with information to contact police

Firefighters tackled a blaze at Oak Tree Nature Reserve on Friday (Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service)

Firefighters have been attacked with golf balls while putting out a “deliberate” blaze at a nature reserve.

Crews spent more than three hours tackling the fire at Oak Tree Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire on Friday evening.

They managed to extinguish it shortly before 10pm and stop it from spreading to a nearby leisure centre.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said its firefighters were assaulted while tackling the blaze.

“Last night a fire was started deliberately at Oak Tree Nature Reserve and our crews were attacked as they went about their job,” it said.

The fire service called this “unacceptable” and asked anyone with information to contact police.

It is appealing for information over the deliberate fire - which firefighters were alerted to just before 7pm - as well as the attack on crews.

Andy Macey, the area manager at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Deliberate fires put lives at risk and take our fire engines away from dealing with other life-threatening incidents.”

Seven fire engines and two waters from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire fire and rescue services attended the blaze at the nature reserve on Friday.

“With the extreme weather we are already dealing with more incidents than normal, and deliberate fire starting needlessly ties up our resources,” Mr Macey said.

“Attacks on our crews as they go about their job are completely unacceptable and we will be working with our police colleagues to identify those responsible.”

Anyone with information is being asked to call police on 101 quoting incident 0713_15072022.