Crews spent more than three hours tackling the blaze at Oak Tree Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire on Friday night. They managed to put it out just before 10pm and prevent it from spreading to a nearby leisure centre. Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said its firefighters were attacked while fighting the blaze. “Last night a fire was deliberately started at Oak Tree Nature Reserve and our crews were attacked as they were doing their job,” it said. The fire service called it “unacceptable” and asked anyone with information to contact police. An appeal for information about the deliberate fire – which firefighters were called to just before 7pm – as well as the attack on crews. Andy Macey, area manager of 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 water engines from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Services attended the blaze at the nature reserve on Friday. “With extreme weather we are already dealing with more incidents than normal and wildfire is unnecessarily tying up our resources,” Mr Macey said. “Attacks on our crews as they do their job are completely unacceptable and we will work with our police colleagues to identify those responsible.” Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 quoting incident 0713_15072022.
