A MAN rang police to claim responsibility for an arson attack minutes after a garage went up in flames.

Firefighters and police were called to a row of detached garages at the end of Osbourne Terrace, Darwen, just before midnight on Tuesday.

One of the garages was used as a hangout by the teenage children of the owner, but it was unoccupied at the time of the blaze.

The garage had been left unlocked.

A Lancashire Fire Service spokesman said: “For onlookers it was quite a dramatic fire because there were big flames and it was close to a house.

“We had to evacuate two end properties, one of which suffered damage from the fire.

“We were treating it as suspicious, but while at the scene police received a call from someone who admitted responsibility.”

The timber-framed garage was destroyed in the blaze, which was started when rubbish was set alight inside. Furniture inside was also torched. A spokesman for Lancashire Constabulary confirmed they attended a suspected arson at 11.50pm on Tuesday and that the fire caused around £1,000 damage to the garage and gable-end house.

A 20-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson endangering life in the early hours of Wednesday, and was due to be questioned yesterday.