THE disclosure today that in Burnley last year more than 1,064 fires were started deliberately is both staggering and frightening.

Just as disturbing is the fact that this arson scourge is seriously on the increase -- with nuisance fires in skips, wheelie bins and rubbish rising by nearly 50 per cent and fires started deliberately in homes, business premises and cars up by almost a quarter.

And the scale and growing extent of Burnley's fire-bug plague alarms police and fire chiefs -- for the increase is probably the largest experienced by any county fire brigade in the country and may even outstrip arson levels encountered by big-city fire authorities.

The bill for all this wilful damage in Burnley is put at £200,000, but it is the potential human cost that is most alarming.

This was demonstrated most chillingly only this week when an inquest in South Yorkshire heard that a 14-year-old girl died in a fire at her home because firemen who could have saved her had been called elsewhere to deal with an arson attack on a shed on an allotment. And when firefighters from other stations were called to the blazing house, vital minutes were lost -- and as a result a young girl's life was lost also.

The law wields serious penalties for arson and it is up to the courts to impose them rigorously on every offender to curb the deadly dangers that, as such tragic cases prove, can result from even a minor nuisance fire started deliberately.

And it is to be hoped that an equally strong deterrent effect stems from the action and efforts of the new Arson Reduction Team that police and fire chiefs have set up to work with local communities in Burnley to find practical ways of beating the fire bugs and reducing the opportunities for them to strike.

For this is a deadly problem that must be swiftly doused.