FIREFIGHTERS in Kirklees suffered from seven violent incidents last year.

Two involved a physical assault and were among 70 incidents throughout the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service area in the 11 months to April.

In Calderdale, there were 12 incidents of violence, 14 in the Leeds district and six in the Wakefield district.

But almost half of the attacks and abuse directed at fire service staff across West Yorkshire took place in Bradford – 36 in total.

Staff were subjected to a catalogue of abuse including physical assaults, aggressive behaviour, verbal and racist abuse across West Yorkshire.

The figures are part of a performance management and activity report for 2009/10, presented to a meeting of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority today.

In spite of the range of attacks, incidents have fallen by a third from 2008/9.

District commander of Kirklees, Keith Robinson, who has worked across West Yorkshire, said: “It is encouraging to see that there has been a drop.

“However, it is still very, very concerning to have members of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service staff – both operational and community staff – subjected to unnecessary assaults and attacks by members of the public.

“The assaults range from physical assaults to verbal abuse.

“It is upsetting because we are there to serve the public not take abuse from them.”

The report said that although the 76 attacks out of 46,646 attendances may seem ‘insignificant when considering these very small percentages’ (0.16% overall), fire bosses say one attack is one too many.

There were no attacks on fire crews in January or February, but the bad weather played a part in that.