No water – just the cost of (bon)fires

Slugger can’t handle much more water. So I will start what will be a series of blogs attempting to discover an absolute figure for public expenditure on 11th July bonfires.

First up is costs to the Fire Service.

Reports for the last five reporting years show callouts on the 11th night alone have consistently fallen across all areas.

However, the total number of calls to what the NIFRS classify as a ‘bonfire incident’ between May and July reached its highest level in 2009 (288).

The expenditure then was £894,076 and this represents a 32% increase in costs related to 11th bonfires for the Fire Service in 5 years.

Those years (2005 – 2009) saw total expenditure of £3,719,940 from this public body alone in dealing with incidents around 11th bonfires

Much more on this coming in future days/weeks.

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