GALLERY: East Lancashire's bonfire celebrations (From Blackburn Citizen)

GALLERY: East Lancashire's bonfire celebrations

11:30am Monday 9th November 2009

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THOUSANDS of people across East Lancashire turned out to watch fireworks light up the sky at Bonfire Night events last night.

A spectacular firework display was held in Witton Park, Blackburn last night.

But spectators at the display were left waiting for almost an hour as organisers held off the firework show as more people than expected attended the event.

The display kicked off at 8.45pm to ensure everybody saw the show on Saturday.

Specialist fireworks were brought in from Yorkshire for the fundraising Bonfire Night display at the Golden Cup in Darwen on Thursday night.

Donations collected will go to helping Darwen schoolgirl Luciana Wulkan, who suffers from a rare medical disorder where her muscles turn to bone.

The Golden Cup hopes to raise £2,000 for medical research and equipment.

In Burnley more than 500 people wrapped up and dug into hot dogs and burgers during the Guy Fawkes celebrations at the Thornton Arms pub, in Brownside Road on Thursday.

And in Burnley on Wednesday, the community bonfire event in Brunswick Road, Burnley Wood, was a success despite the heavy rain.

It was organised by Coun Karen Heseltine who wanted to create something positive about an area she said had an unjustified negative image.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue have praised people for attending organised bonfire events.

Lancashire’s Chief Fire Officer Peter Holland said: “It’s extremely gratifying to have had our bonfire and firework safety campaign work so well.

“The spectacle and scale of the bonfire and firework events that we have been encouraging people to attend has, as ever, been magnificent.”

Firefighters said there were an ‘exceptionally’ low number of call-outs on Thursday night - Guy Fawkes’ Night.

There were just 97 call-outs in East Lancashire that night, compared to 197 on the same night last year.

Bosses at the fire service are crediting the drop on the recent Bright Sparks safety campaign, which has been running in recent weeks.

Figures from the fire service showed that on Thursday night there were 39 call-outs in the Blackburn with Darwen area compared to 70 last year.

In Hyndburn call-outs fell from 47 to 24, in Burnley they fell from 43 to 20, in Pendle they fell from 20 to 11 and in Rossendale calls fell from 17 to just three.

There were no bonfire night-related calls in the Ribble Valley for the second year in succession.

Click here to view and buy bonfire pictures from the Golden Cup, Darwen; Witton Park, Blackburn; The Thornton Arms, Burnley; Haslingden Cricket Club, Rossendale and Marl Pits, Rossendale.

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