Youngsters are bonfire safety Bright Sparx

Children from South Ribble were presented with awards and prizes at the Broadfield Drive station.

They were the winners in a competition, which has been running for ten consecutive years, which invited children from across the South Ribble district to design posters containing safety messages in the lead up to bonfire night as part of the Bright Sparx campaign.

They were encouraged to think about fire safety messages, concerns over pets and vulnerable people and how to help people who may have had burns.

Forty schools took part in the competition and more than 500 entries were received.

This resulted in many hours of judging by Leyland Fire Station manager Steve Barnes, the Neighbourhood Policing Team and Leyland councillors Michael Titherington and Matthew Tomlinson.

The posters were split into three categories depending on the ages of the children - reception, years one and two, years three and four and years five and six.

There was one overall winner and six runners up who were invited to visit Leyland Fire Station to look around the premises, meet the crew and receive their prizes.

Bronwen Allcock, from Longton Primary, was the overall winner scooping a Samsung tablet and the runners-up received family swimming passes to be used at pools across South Ribble and a family pass to Leyland’s Worden Park bonfire night.

The winners from each category were Zachary Taylor, years one and two, Jenya Zlatogorskaya, years three and four and Maddison Lennon, years five and six.

The runners-up from each category were Lily Finch, years and and two, Matilda Orwin, years three and four and Josh Parr, years five and six.

South Ribble Council and Leyland Round Table have supported the project for the last 10 years and kindly donated the prizes.

They saw the benefit in running the competition and recognised its aims to help reduce anti-social behaviour around bonfire night by teaching children of the dangers while in schools.

Andy Dow, community safety advisor at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service southern area, said: “We’re so pleased that this project has been able to run for the last ten years with the support of local partners.

“Teaching children about bonfire safety from a young age means they will hopefully remember these safety messages as they grow older.

“We received some fantastic entries that a lot of time and effort had obviously gone into but a big well done to the winners.

“And here’s to next year.”