Coronavirus madness as yet more people burn rubbish in Wigan

Fire crews in Wigan were called to two fires involving household waste at around 3pm today (March 29).

One incident was on Frog Lane and another happened on Darlington Street. They follow 12 separate fires involving waste in Leigh over the weekend which prompted a warning from crews.

The spate of fires come after the borough's recycling centres were closed until further notice last week over the coronavirus.

Burning household rubbish in back gardens is illegal.

Glyn McGann, watch manager at Wigan fire station, said that burning the rubbish was not necessary and warned people not to do it.

He said: "The residents have attempted to burn waste in their back gardens and nearby alleys.

"It just isn't necessary as the council waste disposal team is running as normal and if people think that waste is building up, they can arrange for it to be removed."

He went on to describe the behaviour as "irresponsible."

He said: "There is no need for this and we're only at the start of this pandemic and people are panicking when they don't need to.

"Thankfully we managed to contain these fires but burning the rubbish could easily spread to other properties."

He added: "People shouldn't be congregating like this either, so it's totally irresponsible."