Staying safe at Lewes Bonfire 2024 – police, fire service and District Council offer advice as huge Sussex event approaches

The huge annual event take place on Tuesday, November 5, and police have previously warned about changes to rail services and road closures. People can find out about them here.

The emergency services, who have all been working in partnership with the council and the bonfire societies, discussed safety measures at their Church Lane headquarters on Monday, November 4.

ESFRS station manager Alex Probyn said there would be triple the amount of fire cover in the area.

He said: “Our normal Lewes cover arrangements on a normal night would be one fire engine available 24 hours a day. On the night of the bonfire we have two fire engines available for an immediate response at Lewes Fire Station and we’ve stood up an extra fire engine at Barcombe fire station for an immediate response as well.”

He said: “We also have a number of flex-duty officers available to go to incidents and oversee any operational activity.”

Alex said planning for this year’s event started on November 6 last year. “As you can imagine, it’s huge,” he said, adding that preparation involves plans for keeping businesses safe and speaking at schools. The planning also involves ESFRS tactical decision-making exercises so the fire service can plan responses to situations that may happen before, during or after the event.

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Alex said the ESFRS is not planning for ‘hugely dramatic weather’ but advised people to dress warmly and make sure that they arrive in plenty of time and find a safe spot.

He said: "If there are any stray fireworks, or anything that happens to land and be lit, do not touch it, stay away and alert one of the stewards who will be nearby to deal with situation.”

Sussex Police chief superintendent Howard Hodges emphasised that emergency services’ message is for people outside of Lewes not to travel to Lewes and to stay local.

But he added: “A significant number of people will be working to keep the public safe.”

He said: “The people who are here in Lewes, I’d ask them to keep their eyes open and if there’s anything they’re not happy about in terms of something that looks unsafe or anything that gives them cause for concern then report back to a police officer. Or report back to a member of stewarding that will be visible and don’t hesitate to do so.”

He continued: “If you are coming then please behave responsibly. There will be lots of people on the streets. We recognise that crowd crushing, crowd density, crowd movement is a concern for us so just recognise that. Be respectful to other people and make sure that you, those you’re with and everybody else around you can go home safely at the end of the night.”

Bryn Mabey from Lewes District Council said: “On the night our licensing teams will be going out to make sure that there aren’t any illegal vendors.”

The council has been involved in planning many aspects of the night. Mr Mabey said: “The really big piece of work that the District Council is involved in is the clean-up operation. Once the processions have finished, once people have headed off to their fire sites we have a team of about 15 waste crew crew who work through the night. So they start at 1am and work until about 6am to clean up the town. It’s incredible. The town is absolutely spotless the following day. You'd have no idea that there had been a big event. They collect about ten tonnes of waste over that time.”

He said that, as a thank you from the town, the mayor and others serve the team breakfast at the town hall at about 7am.

Lewes District Council is also encouraging people to bring along their own reusable plastic pint cups. Mr Mabey said: “As long as it’s got measures on pretty much any pub in Lewes will serve you a pint in that.”