Bonfire Night attacks forced fire crews to withdraw or wait for police

Some Scottish fire crews had to withdraw from incidents or wait for police support on Bonfire Night because it was unsafe to continue. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) reported six attacks on firefighters and 1,172 emergency calls in six hours on 5 November. No injuries or serious damage to appliances were reported in Scotland.

The scale in Scotland

SFRS set its reporting window as 5.30pm to 11.30pm on 5 November 2026. In that time the service reported 1,172 calls, 335 bonfires attended and six reported attacks on firefighters. Calls and attendances are different measures, and not every call was a firework or bonfire incident. SFRS describes its figures as initial.

What it meant for crews and control

SFRS reported objects being thrown at crews and appliances, including fireworks, rocks and glass bottles. Some crews withdrew, or waited for police to arrive, before tackling incidents.

That raises a clear question for the response as a whole: what happens to a job that cannot be tackled straight away while new calls keep arriving and cover has to be maintained? The SFRS release does not give an incident-by-incident account of how control tracked those jobs, and it does not quantify any delays.

Police support

Police Scotland planned to base 20 officers at ten fire stations across Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire under Operation Academia, with officers able to accompany crews where needed. SFRS separately reported police escorts in some areas under Operation Amberlight.

The planned arrangement and the escorts SFRS confirmed are not the same thing, and the figures published so far do not show how often officers rode with crews.

A separate comparison: Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) recorded 328 incidents on 5 November, up from 274 in 2025. In its wider account of the Halloween and Bonfire period, the service reported that a firefighter was struck by a brick and that appliances were damaged.

Manchester's incident totals cannot be set against Scotland's call figures. They cover different areas and different reporting windows, and this article does not offer a UK-wide total.

What can be confirmed

Both services have published their own figures, and those are attributed here to SFRS and GMFRS. What they have confirmed is the impact on crews: attacks in Scotland that led to withdrawals and waits for police, and a firefighter struck by a brick in Greater Manchester.

What remains open is how effective the police partnership arrangements were. That is a question for the debriefs, and the Hub will report on it if the findings are shared.

Sources: Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Bonfire Night figures and response (6 November 2026); Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Halloween and Bonfire period figures; Police Scotland, planned Bonfire Night partnership arrangements.