ARSONISTS are risking their lives by starting fires in the Daneshouse area, a fire chief has warned.

The warning from Burnley Station Officer Steve Cope came after a fire at Burnley General Hospital which broke out while firefighters from Burnley and Nelson were busy tackling deliberate fires.

The fire, in a bin in a smoking room at a psychiatric unit, was not serious, but Station Officer Cope warned lives could have been lost if it had been a full scale blaze.

He said that on Saturday at 2.40pm two fire engines from Burnley were called to rubbish fire in a back yard in Wood Street.

Minutes later, fire broke out in New Hall Street, so two crews from Nelson were sent.

When the alarm was raised at Burnley General Hospital at 3.05pm, the nearest available crews were retained units in Colne and Padiham, who took more than 15 minutes to get to the scene.

Fortunately, the fire was not serious and no one was injured.

Station Officer Cope said: "We have had a lot of calls to the Daneshouse area over the last week to fires in skips, rubbish fires and fires in derelict houses, all of which have been deliberately started.

"In a hospital, if this had been a real fire there could well have been fatalities because the crews from nearby stations were tied up.

"People who start fires deliberately are putting lives at risk by taking fire engines off the streets, even before we lose fire engines to modernisation. They are criminals."

Fire crews were called out 10 times to deliberate fires in the Daneshouse area between 11am on Friday and 3pm on Saturday.