A 27-YEAR-OLD man with asthma was taken to hospital after a fire was started outside the window of his home.

Police are investigating the incident, which happened at around 3.15am yesterday, in Albert Street, Nelson.

The blaze, which was lit in a commercial skip outside Pendle Lodge flats, has been linked to another skip fire started earlier that night.

Firefighters first attended a large burning skip at the rear of the Lord Nelson Pub in Manchester Road at around 10.45pm on Tuesday.

And in the early hours of yesterday morning they were called to a second large industrial skip that had been set alight in nearby Albert Street.

Crew manager Tom Ashworth said: “The smoke from the fire was around the window of multi-occupancy flats.

“It was a hot night and the smoke and heat went straight through an open window.

“The person in the room was lucky to get out. He was asthmatic and he had to be given oxygen and taken to hospital.”

The fire caused severe smoke damage to the flat and two further flats, as well as light smoke damage to other rooms.

Police confirmed the fire was being treated as suspicious.

A spokesman said officers would be speaking to a takeaway restaurant, which owns the skip.

Mr Ashworth said: “We are treating this incident as arson with the intent to endanger life.

“They were commercial wheelie bins and you have got to lift a metal lid up to light them.

“A young man is suffering because of this.”

He said it had been a busy night for the crew, as they had also dealt with several grass and rubbish fires.

He added: “It highlights two things.

"One, that we can’t be at two places at once, and that when we’re dealing with a grass fire or bits of rubbish there could be a house fire and somebody who needs our help elsewhere in town.”