YOUNGSTERS who smash, vandalise and destroy take up a lot of time which is valuable to the emergency services.

School holidays and half terms are particularly busy as police, fire and ambulance staff find themselves racing around to sort out the havoc caused by juvenile tearaways.

Their own lives are put at risk as well as those of members of the public as buildings are wrecked quite needlessly.

Putting a halt to such wanton damage is not easy.

The bureaucratic and very costly business of taking youths through the court system and locking them up with other criminals does not have a high success rate.

But by any reckoning firefighter Chris Caton is working wonders.

Since he became leader of the Young Offenders Arson Programme Sub Officer Caton has seen 56 young arsonists and not one has so far re-offended.

His miracle cure is however no soft option.

As Chris says the children's actions are mainly "born out of ignorance - thoughtless stupidity perhaps - but not wickedness."

He gives young offenders a good talking to and manages to make them realise the senselessness of their actions and the real dangers of fire.

It's the sort of common sense solution we need to see a lot more of.