MEMBERS of the community have rallied around firefighters dealing with the massive tyre fire on Upper Castle Street in Bradford.

In addition to local residents, the council-associated group, Bradford East Communities Can, has also been helping the firefighters as well as other emergency workers and businesses who have been impacted by the fire.

Yana Greenwood, who lives on Bowling Hall Road in East Bowling, had just finished period of self-isolation when the fire began burning early last Monday.

"It was our first opportunity to come out of isolation and then fire happened that day," she said.

As the firefighters worked hard to extinguish the fire, Mrs Greenwood came up with a way to say thank you.

"I bought some crates of bottled water, fruit, crisps and tubs of chocolates and brought it to the firefighters who have been working hard to put out this fire," said Mrs Greenwood.

"They really appreciated the food and drinks. One of the firefighters even said how grateful he was when he told me he hadn't had anything to eat all day.

"I told them that you're all doing a fantastic job and we as the community appreciate what you're doing."

"The smoke fumes have been horrendous and the firefighters looked really tired, so we're hoping this little care package boosted them up a bit."

"I'm a care home manager," added Mrs Greenwood. "So I know what it feels like to have people say thank you. We've had people bring gifts to our staff for looking after their loved ones.

"These kind of things boost morale and we wanted to do the same for the firefighters."

After she brought the food and drinks to the firefighters, that evening she went on social media to explain what she and her children had done for the firefighters.

At the end of her post, she wrote: "Why not show appreciation and drop off a few bottles of water and refreshments for these great people to show that we care."

In a relatively short period of time, she said she had 292 shares and loads of comments.

Mrs Greenwood said: "People wrote back to me to tell me what they brought down to the firefighters. Someone said KFC and another brought homemade chilli.

Bradford East Communities Can has also been instrumental in going out to support the emergency workers and businesses in the East and West Bowling areas.

Bradford East Communities Can took to Twitter to express their thanks, tweeting: "Thank you to our amazing Covid support workers for stepping up again helping to support road closures, talking to businesses, carrying out reassurance patrols and engagement with the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, West Yorkshire Police and other colleagues from Bradford Council affected by the recent major fire."

Bradford East MP Imran Hussain, who recently visited the fire site, said: “Firefighters, police officers and council staff have been on-site to extinguish this blaze and protect residents, and I want to thank them for their exemplary response and hard work in extremely adverse and dangerous circumstances."