![\"Merseyside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1_Merseyside-Fire-Rescue-Service-at-Knowsley-HeightsHuytonLiverpoolPic-Andrew-Teebayjpges-a.jpg\")
Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service at Knowsley Heights(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\nFirefighters and police were targeted as they attended a blaze at Knowsley Heights last nightMerseyside Fire & Rescue Service at Knowsley Heights(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n
People are calling for an outright ban on the sale of fireworks after several reports of misuse<\/a>, including an incident which saw police and firefighters targeted whilst responding to a tower block fire in Huyton<\/a>.<\/p>\n Emergency services were called out to Knowsley<\/a> Heights on Primrose Drive at approximately 7pm (November 5) after reports of a fire on a fourth floor balcony, according to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS). Firefighters quickly gained entry to the property and extinguished the fire, however MFRS released a statement soon afterwards confirming fire crews had been \u201ctargeted and attacked with fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowsley Heights is owned and managed by Livv Housing and is currently in the process of being decanted. However, the Liverpool ECHO<\/a> understands the decant process is far from complete and a significant number of people still live there.<\/p>\n Merseyside Police released a statement just before midnight, confirming it had rushed to Knowsley Heights following reports a group of youths were directing fireworks towards the buildings. On arriving, police said officers were targeted and fireworks launched in their direction. One officer was injured at the scene.<\/p>\n Chief Inspector Kevin Chatterton said: \u201cWe will not tolerate this type of disgraceful behaviour, particularly when it involves emergency services staff being targeted in such a way. It is only by sheer good fortune that nobody was seriously injured.\u201c<\/p>\n Police later arrested a 14-year-old boy on suspicion of arson<\/a> with intent to endanger life.<\/p>\n As details of the incident began to emerge, Knowsley Council<\/a> published a strongly worded statement from Council leader, Cllr Graham Morgan, including a post on its official Facebook<\/a> account.<\/p>\n Cllr Morgan said: \u201cI am shocked and saddened that our hardworking firefighters have been targeted maliciously whilst attending a call out.\u201d Adding: \u201cI condemn the actions of those who have needlessly risked the safety of residents and emergency workers tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n The Facebook post prompted almost dozens of comments from concerned members of the local community, many of whom called for an outright ban on the sale of fireworks. Lynn Gunn commented: \u201cPlease get them banned. My dog is petrified and she\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n \u201cBan them with immediate effect. Shut down fireworks shops that open all year and ban pop up shops also.\u201d<\/p>\n Claire Marsden added: \u201cThe way things are going they\u2019ll be banned. There\u2019s a reason that guns, knives, tasers, pepper sprays etc. were banned.<\/p>\n \u201cCertain people can\u2019t be trusted, so things that can be weaponised are banned. What these [people] have done is weaponise something that was made for entertainment and cause harm to others.\u201d<\/p>\n Jo McIver said: \u201cAbsolutely disgusting. Ban the sale of fireworks, it\u2019s that\u2019s simple. I hope these [people] are found and punished for that. Grenfell springs to mind, thanks to the emergency services for responding so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Ronnie Birch wrote: \u201cNever going to ban them and why will they, for a minority who can\u2019t behave, not just on bonfire night, any other night of the year. Attacking the fire service or police when trying to do their job is unbelievable given what happened to Grenfell tower.<\/p>\n \u201cKnowsley Council could easily do organised events across the borough but probably say financially they can\u2019t. So we\u2019re back to square one again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n This sentiment was shared by Lisa Gaffney who suggested an outright ban was not the solution: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to ban fireworks, there\u2019s enough government and councils to set a bonfire up safeguard it and supervise a display.<\/p>\n \u201cAll fireworks are given to adults and anyone found to not follow the rules are removed. Kids love fireworks if used correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cShould bring back bonfire night run by the council then because it\u2019s getting worse each year a kids keep getting everything we had as kids taken away. It was never like this? I just hope everyone\u2019s ok.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to some of these points, Cllr Graham Morgan, Leader of Knowsley Council, said: \u201cThe local authority does not have the power to issue or enforce a ban on fireworks. There are however laws in place which restrict the sale and use of fireworks, which thankfully the vast majority of people adhere to.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately for the small minority who do not, and who are intent on causing harm and fear, no amount of legislation or organised events will deter them. And that is why it is so important that these people are caught and feel the consequences of their actions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not organise Council Bonfire events and haven\u2019t for many years but we do and can support community groups who want to organise events safely. More information is available about this process on our website.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighters and police were targeted as they attended a blaze at Knowsley Heights last nightMerseyside Fire & Rescue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[93625,2686,59,57,58,4658,2513,2687,2512,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-248181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-bonfire-night","tag-fires","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-housing","tag-huyton","tag-merseyside-fire-and-rescue-service","tag-merseyside-police","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_JS386879339jpg-fla.jpg\")
The flat block after the blaze(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_JS386879163.jpg\")
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service at Knowsley Heights on Bonfire Night(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n