Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service has defended the decision
Councillors Modhwadia (second from the left) and Joshi (centre) at the event(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Traditional Holi celebrations in Leicester were disrupted after the fire service decided not to attend.
Conservative councillors Sanjay Modhwadia and Dilip Joshi, representing North Evington, raised “serious concerns” on Monday, March 2, after a water tank was not provided to safely extinguish the ceremonial fire at this year’s Holi celebrations.
The event drew more than 1,500 people to Spinney Hill Park.
Holi is a sacred Hindu tradition which sees people celebrate spring’s arrival, love, and the triumph of good over evil.
According to the councillors, the Holi festival — including the traditional Holika Dahan fire ceremony — has been celebrated in Leicester for more than 40 years, but this time no water tank was provided for the event.
The two Conservative councillors said: “At the last minute, permission to provide water support through the fire brigade was denied. This sudden decision caused confusion, distress, and significant inconvenience to thousands of attendees.
“The timing of concluding the fire is significant, and due to the refusal of water support, the ceremony could not be completed at the appropriate time.”
The pair requested an explanation from Leicester City Council as to why this support was withdrawn at the last minute.
They added: “Providing a water tank for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, once a year, for a decades-old community event is a reasonable expectation.”
LeicestershireLive contacted the council about the issue, but they said the concerns should be directed to Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) instead.
According to the fire service, it had arranged a meeting with community leaders regarding this event in January, but the leaders did not attend.
Further attempts to arrange meetings were then also not progressed by event organisers, a spokesperson said.
Chief fire officer Callum Faint said: “We recognise the cultural and community significance of Holi celebrations. However, the specific request for our Service to extinguish pre-planned festival fires presents challenges, as attending these pre-planned events removes our crews and fire engines from emergency availability.
Chief fire officer Callum Faint(Image: LFRS)
“This of course risks unnecessary delayed response times should emergencies occur elsewhere. In an emergency, seconds save lives, so the statement ‘approximately 15 to 20 minutes’ really does not stand true, especially if it was you, or your family experiencing an emergency that we were delayed for.”
He explained that if they were to provide cover for every event that takes place across the county, the time taken from firefighters would not be 15 to 20 minutes but “more like hundreds of hours of impact.”
Chief fire officer Faint added that pre-planned events are the responsibility of event organisers, and they should on all occasions, provide robust measures to control and extinguish pre-planned fires without the need and reliance on emergency services.
He said: “Pre-planned events must not take us away from our statutory duties of providing an emergency service to our community.
“We remain open and willing to engage with all affected groups but in doing so will not favour any event at the expense of continual community safety, which is what the public should quite rightly expect me to do.”