NOT for the first time, fire crews in East Lancashire have found themselves being stoned by yobs when they have turned out in response to a blaze.

The latest incident was on Blackburn's 'Dodge City' Shadsworth estate when firefighters were called to put out yet another prematurely-torched bonfire.

"We have got to find some way of stopping this from happening. The kids on the estate need some form of control," said angry ward councillor Jim Blackburn.

So they do -- and isn't the remedy there already in the firemen's hands...their hoses?

A thorough and chilling high-pressure soaking would, I am sure, flush away the anti-social inclinations of these young stone-throwing arsonists at a stroke. And, after all, water and pond life do go together.