FIREFIGHTERS faced a potential explosion when a fire was deliberately started in a garage containing eight gas cylinders.

The garage, in a colony behind houses on Staghills Road, Newchurch, had been set on fire using burning paper at 9.15pm on Saturday.

Sub Officer David Hilliard, from Rawtenstall fire station, said: "When we arrived people reported hearing a bang which was probably an aerosol exploding and we could hear gas leaking from a cylinder.

"We had to tackle the fire with caution and from a distance and had to keep a crowd of people away from the immediate area because the cylinders could have gone off like a bomb.

"Once we put out the fire we broke into the garage and continued cooling the contents with jets.

"Inside we found eight large cylinders of liquid propane gas."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.