Firefighters called out to string of bin fires in Oldham

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) attended the three blazes between 7.30pm and 10pm on Wednesday night.

Despite them taking just minutes to distinguish, concerns have been raised over the frequency of the flames and how they might be a waste of time.

A spokesperson for the service said: "We've had quite had quite a few rubbish fires, we put it down to youths but there's no evidence to that," a spokesperson for the service said.

"They were all in Chadderton and they were all dotted about, but it's not something out of the ordinary really - we attend things like that most evenings.

Fire crews from Chadderton Fire Station attended to the fires (Image: Google Street View)

"There was a kid's bike and traffic cones on one of them, we were there minutes; they are not particularly time consuming but if they come in when we have a house fire then that's the frustrating thing."

They continued: "If a house fire or road traffic collision came in and we were at a bin fire our control would tell us to leave it if we were the nearest to it, and if the fire was not near a property - then a crew further afield would have to come to deal with the bin fire.

"We'll do reports on them and then if we discover that there's a spike in bin fires then we'll raise awareness about the dangers of them.

"Bin fires are sort of our bread and butter if you can call them that, it's just kids being kids and thinking it's funny."

Bins were set on fire in Chadderton this week, meanwhile bins were set on fire in Greenacres Cemetery eight times earlier this year - with each bin costing £500 to replace (Image: Oldham Council)

They explained that when they get called out to tackle these small blazes it is usually only household rubbish.

The spokesperson praised the council for its quick response time in removing litter once the authority is alerted to it through the Love Clean Streets app.

They added: "If we're driving passed we'll take pictures of bins if they are too full because they will cause us a problem in the future."