Tuesday 16th June 2015 – 2.00pm – Murray MacGregor.
When you’re approaching the end of a shift helping people, the last thing you expect is that some mindless teenagers will shoot a firework at your response car.
Shockingly, that is exactly what happened to a Birmingham paramedic late last night in Ladywood.
Mel Fox, who is based at Aston Fire Station, was walking back to her response car at about 11.15pm on Monday evening after treating a patient at an address in Acorn Grove when she saw three older teenagers sitting on a wall.
She had just put her equipment away and was finishing her paperwork inside the car when she heard an enormous bang.
She said: “It really made me jump when it happened, I didn’t know what had happened, but out of the corner of my eye I spotted the three youths running away.
“It was then that I spotted the firework beside the rear door of the car. As it hadn’t exploded I immediately thought that it was about to, which made me really scared. Thankfully nothing else happened.
“After taking a moment to pull myself together, I got pretty angry. What sort of mentality to people like this have? Were they just ‘messing about’ and thought they’d try and scare me? Were they trying to hurt me?
“I just can’t work out what sort of person would do something like this.”
LISTEN: Mel speaks to Richard Wilford on BBC WM:
WMAS Deputy Chief Executive, Diane Lee, said: “This sort of action is completely out of order and is something that we will not tolerate.
“How anyone could think that this sort of act is appropriate is beyond me. Our staff are there to help people in their hour of need. Thankfully Mel wasn’t hurt and actually continued working, helping another patient before she finished her shift, but no member of staff should have to suffer this sort of experience.”
Ends