ARSON is suspected following a huge blaze which injured two firemen and destroyed part of a market hall in the early hours of today.

The firefighters, brought in from Burnley to tackle the blaze at Lambert's Market in the centre of Nelson, were treated at Burnley General Hospital for their injuries.

Steve Howarth had stitches to a cut above his eye while Mark Doggett was treated for cuts after being hit in the back by glass splinters.

Stallholders in the remainder of the covered market not destroyed by the fire were this morning clearing up and trying to get on with normal business.

The blaze broke out in a painter and decorator's store at the Jude Street end.

Dozens of tins of paint and hundreds of rolls of wallpaper set alight, sending flames leaping through the asbestos roof of the hall. Around 25 firefighters, including crews from Nelson and Burnley, the fire brigade's incident support unit and a turntable ladder from Blackburn, tackled the blaze which sent pieces of asbestos showering on to the firemen and into Jude Street.

One firefighter said: "You could hear tins of paint popping and the heat was so intense we had to move the appliances further away. It was firing bits of asbestos roof all over the place."

The blaze, which broke out at 5.17am, took two hours to put out and has left much of the market beyond repair.

Several stalls were eith destroyed or badly damaged, although ones nearer Cross Street were open as normal.

The damaged section of the market has been roped off because of the fear of parts of the roof falling in.

The blaze was described as 'of doubtful origin. CID and fire officers visited the damaged building as part of their investigations. Three stalls in the neighbouring Grand Arcade market were also broken into last night.

Barry Duxbury, whose cooked meat stall narrowly missed being damaged in the blaze, said he was waiting to see if a safety officer would allow the passageway outside his stall to remain open before he could do any business.

"I can't open the stall at the moment until I get the go ahead," he said. "It's not affected my stall but the roof nearby looks a bit dodgy. I suppose if they block off the damaged bit the rest of us can open but we'll have to see.

"It's made a right mess of the place."

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