A FIRE officer has warned that his men could be injured in one of an increasing number of fires involving gas cylinders.

Sub officer Shaun Naughton, of Nelson fire station, appealed to householders to be more aware of the dangers of keeping cylinders in unsuitable places.

The appeal follows a seemingly innocuous blaze involving three sheds on allotments in Oxford Road, Nelson, early today.

It was only as firefighters tackled the blaze they discovered a gas cylinder in one of the sheds.

"Fortunately it was in one that was only half burnt and the fire hadn't affected it," said Mr Naughton.

"There was no indication there was a cylinder there.

"It's only a matter of time before one of these things explodes while firefighters are on a job and someone could be seriously hurt or worse."

Mr Naughton said the number of fires involving gas cylinders is on the increase and householders could help the fire brigade. "People need to take care where they store these cylinders," he said.

"They need to be kept in a secure place and perhaps with some sort of indication that they are being stored there.

"In a case like last night there was no-one around at the fire.

"Ideally it is better to store cylinders closer to home so if there is a fire we can talk to the owner and they can warn us.

"More often than not we get to a fire and we specifically have to ask about cylinders rather than people offering us the information."

Firefighters were called to the allotments at 4am today to deal with the blaze which may have been started deliberately.

The crew spent almost two hours tackling the fire.

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