People in Teesside urged to not start deilberate fires for people's safety
The message comes as the Easter holidays are in full swing
Last updated 1st May 2025
We are being urged to not start deliberate fires in Teesside for people's safety.
The message comes as the Easter holidays are in full swing and this time of the year is popular for wildfires.
Rita Richardson from Friends of Eston Hill, a group that aims to look after that area, said: "We've got to keep our firefighters safe and we want our community to go up there and visit the Eston Hills safe as well. It's not just a laugh. There's dangers and consequences of these fires.
"It's such a vast area. It's a huge area right from Kirkleatham over to Flatts Lane and there's access to it from so many points. Kids from all the estates can get up there. It's within walking distance from anywhere.
"Fires on the Eston Hills happen a lot at this time of the year. This is the time when they start and it does tend to be young people although we can't say it's always them. We do get a lot of people going up in cars and setting fire to cars as well but we can't always blame the young people. It breaks my heart seeing the Eston Hills on fire. We put a lot of time and effort in keeping them clean.
"I love going up there. It's a beautiful place and if you see it on fire, it breaks my heart. I put a lot of time and effort into the local area, into the schools and not just with Friends of Eston Hills but as my role within the Fire Bridgade, so I always feel I'm not doing enough if I'm honest if I see them on fire, I feel like what more can I do?
"It's really important that we get into schools at this time of the year, to speak to the children to say 'you know what? If you're going up there, we need you to do the right thing. We need to keep you safe, we need to keep the public safe and we need to keep our firefighters safe.'"