FIREFIGHTERS were called to extinguish a blaze at a derelict house in New Ferry on bonfire night.

They were called to the building on Olinda Street at around 8.25pm, leaving the scene just after midnight. The ground floor and first floor were ablaze.

Across Merseyside last night firefighters saw a 40% reduction in the number of deliberate fires and 17% fewer bonfire-related incidents than last year.

They were called to 35 fires caused by anti-social behaviour fires – including bonfires, wheelie bin and rubbish fires – opposed to 58 on November 5 last year.

Liverpool and Wirral saw the highest number of such bonfires – with fire crews attending 12 in Liverpool and three in Wirral, one in Knowsley and Sefton and St Helens both recording one.

Throughout the whole bonfire period, firefighters have attended 207 deliberately set fires, down 37.1% from last year when they attended 329.

In total, fire control received 279 emergency 999 calls on November 5th in 2019, down from 2018’s figure of 417.

Liverpool saw the highest number of deliberately set fires, with fire crews attending 21 deliberate fires, although this was down from 26 in 2018.

Sefton saw the largest decrease, from 14 deliberately set fires in 2018 down to just two in 2019, with Wirral seeing the next largest reduction – from 13 down to five.

Station manager Lauren Woodward, arson and incident investigation, said: "We are pleased that the vast majority of people across Merseyside enjoyed a safe Bonfire Night.

"Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service received a large volume of calls, with our Control staff doing a fantastic job of handling them.

"Our Arson Team also spent the night in the community ensuring that members of the public were kept as safe as possible.

"On November 5, we take a tolerant view of bonfires - if they are in the open, supervised by adults and under control we do not extinguish them.

"Those we attended and put out yesterday - those included in our statistics - were all considered to be dangerous.

"The bonfire period is always extremely busy for us as a Service, though extensive advance planning and partnership work with Merseyside Police, local authorities, registered housing providers and other community partners.

"In recent weeks, firefighters and the prevention team have been out in communities clearing away hazardous rubbish and fly-tipping, which could have been used as fuel for fires, and promoting the safe storage of wheelie bins to help prevent them becoming targets for arson.

"We are thankful to our communities for taking on board our safety messages and advice."