Shocking footage shows a huge 5G tower burning to the ground following a suspected arson attack in Birmingham.
Emergency services were called to the blaze on Spring Road in the Sparkhill area of the city at 8.18pm on Thursday night.
Firefighters battled to douse the flames for two hours while police closed the road to protect traffic.
Deliberately started
Dramatic footage uploaded to the website Birmz Is Grime shows the 70ft (21m) mast fully ablaze as fire crews rushed to the scene.
Police say they are not yet sure what started to fire although onlookers say it was deliberately set ablaze following concerns over health risks the network could bring.
The electromagnetic radiation used by mobile phone technologies has led to worries among conspiracy theorists that they can cause certain types of cancer.
They have also been linked to COVID-19 by certain groups and celebrities such as Amanda Holden, leading to a rise in such incidents.
Day 11 of quarantine and Amanda Holden is now a 5G truther pic.twitter.com/a5zYwka572
— William Kedjanyi (@KeejayOV2) April 3, 2020
No scientific evidence
However there has been no scientific evidence that 5G technology poses any threat to human health and it was confirmed as safe by the radiation watchdog last month.
One local resident, who did not want to be named, said: “A lot of people don’t want 5G in the area, I’m not surprised somebody torched it.
“It was a large scale fire and was quite frightening seeing this huge tower up in flames.
“I know people are concerned over the health implications 5G might bring, there’s talk of it causing cancer and things like that.
“But there’s been no proof so I don’t know what people are playing at. If another goes up, it will probably just get burned straight back down again.”
Steel tower
A West Midlands Fire Service spokesman said: “We had a call at 8.18pm last night to Spring Road in the Sparkhill area to reports a telecoms tower was on fire.
“West Midlands Police were called to deal with the traffic and the road was closed.
“When our crews arrived they found a steel tower which they described as being ‘well alight’ and estimated as being 70 feet tall.
“We sent a total of eight firefighters from Ladywood and Hay Mills fire stations.
“Five were in a fire engine from Ladywood and the other three were in a 4×4 brigade fire response vehicle from Hay Mills.
“The structure was close to a building which was not affected by fire.
“We were scaling down the response at 10.28pm. There is no information yet on what caused the fire and there were no casualties.”
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