MORE than nine of every 10 fires in Burnley are started deliberately, it has been revealed.

Officers at the town’s fire station say that almost all of their 50 weekly call outs are to minor fires started on purpose by yobs in the town’s problem areas.

Now bosses have launched an initiative in a bid to tackle Burnley’s chronic arson problem, the worst in the region, which they say could cost lives if firefighters are diverted from genuine emergencies.

Youngsters will next month be bussed to the town’s Belvedere Road station to meet firefighters and hear how dangerous starting fires can be.

A fire chief has said he hopes the move will slash the 2,500 calls a year the station receives, most of which are for deliberate fires.

And the move has also been backed by the chairman of Lancashire’s fire authority, the watchdog that monitors the county’s stations.

The programme, which will see firefighters team up with officers from Burnley police station, follows a recent spate of anti-social behaviour and deliberate fires, particularly in the Bank Hall and Lanehead areas of the town.

Officers said that 95 per cent of their calls are for minor incidents, such as bin fires and blazes in back alleys.

Earlier this month, a gang of youths set alight a shelter in Towneley Park, leaving it with severe damage to a roof panel.

The incident is merely one of many arson calls to Burnley fire station.

Watch manager Neil Ashworth said: “We have been going to the Fulledge area of the Bank Hall ward with police.

“There are large gangs of youths there setting off fires and it is diverting our resources, potentially from emergencies.

“However, with police we are organising an event and providing them with transport to come to the fire station.

“We know some people will say it is rewarding bad behaviour but it puts faces to us firefighters for them and they can see that we are real people.

“At the moment, they are just hanging around. There’s one area near the old Towneley School where they have been setting fire to the shelters in the park.”

Mr Ashworth said firefighters are also troubled by fires in some of Burnley’s 2,270 empty properties and he revealed that his officers were verbally abused by residents in Fulledge and Lanehead after illegal bonfires were put out earlier this month.

However, he said the youth work initiative went hand in hand with police protection and CCTV as ways to combat Burnley’s arson problem.

County Coun Bob Wilkinson, chairman of Lancashire Fire Authority, said the move was one of the first of its kind in East Lancashire but it had proved successful in other areas of the county.

He added: “Firefighters working with these youths will work because we have done it elsewhere.

“They take them in and explain deliberate fires, how dangerous they can be and how tackling an arson somewhere could mean one of their relatives dying elsewhere.

“Arson is a particular problem in Burnley because there are empty houses and bins to set fire to and things to hide behind.

“That’s why I have got so much sympathy for the firefighters and the public who are having their resources taken away.”

Meanwhile, PC Adam Gordon, from the Burnley multi-agency problem solving team, said police officers were backing firefighters in their bid to cut down on arsons in the town.