Annan family return to firework attack on home

Nov 11 2009 by Sharon Liptrott, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

A MOFFAT family returned home from a bonfire night treat watching The Proclaimers in Dumfries to find someone had put a lit firework through their letterbox.

The house at Annanside sustained damage to skirting boards in the hallway and a scorched carpet.

A police spokesman said: “They were very lucky that the house was not set on fire. It is an unusual incident for the region and we are appealing for any witnesses to come forward.”

The house was left unattended between 6.20pm and 11pm on Thursday.

A member of the family said: “We have no idea why anyone would want to do this to us.

“We had a great night out and even commented on the way home that we had not seen many fireworks going off.

“It was a shock to find one inside the house. It could have been much more serious than it was.”

Meanwhile, tighter controls on under-age sales of fireworks dramatically reduced the number of illegal buys. And fire crews in Nithsdale had a record low number of emergency call-outs to extinguish bonfires on November 5.

David Jardine, Dumfries and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service’s district manager for Nithsdale, said: “Last year we attended 25 fires on bonfire night and there were 16 call-outs prior to bonfire night. We also had three incidents when fire and rescue crews came in for verbal abuse or aggression from the public while we were trying to extinguish bonfires.

“But this year we had just two call-outs before November 5, and on the night itself just 14 calls, which is the lowest we have had for many, many years.

“Of these last week, four were false alarms but were of good intent and two were rubbish on fire.

“We had to extinguish seven bonfires in Dumfries and one in Brydekirk in which a man was injured.”

Fire safety manager Jim Waugh, who chairs the multi-agency Bonfire Safety Group working to make Bonfire Night safer in the region, says it shows that behind-the-scenes work to protect the public is paying off.

None of the under-age test purchasers set up by trading standards officers ahead of Bonfire Night were sold fireworks in 22 retailers they visited across the region.”

All the shops asked for proof of age.

The success follows disappointing results a couple of years ago when eight out of 27 local retailers checked on sold fireworks to under-age test purchasers.