Arson attack posed severe '˜risk to life'

Firefighters were called to the incident, which fire bosses said posed a “severe risk to life”, on Dinmore Avenue, Grange Park, at around 11.15pmon Monday.

Emergency services arrived to find that the fire had been extinguished by a resident who heard “breaking glass” and extinguished the blaze using a garden hose.

One resident, who lives on the second floor, said: “I went to bed at around 10pm and at midnight the fire brigade was outside.

“I went over to the window and then I came out of the flat to see what was happening.

“Everyone gathered in the downstairs part with the firefighters on the other side of the door.

“We don’t know what it was. I think it would be possible for it to be caused by arsonists.”

The fire is one of at least ‘half a dozen’ thought to have been started deliberately in the Grange Park area in the past year, say fire services. Watch Manager Warren Topp said: “We were called to a fire in the entrance of a three-storey block of flats.

“The fire started in a mattress that had been discarded adjacent to the final escape door and spread vertically up the building very quickly.

“Luckily one occupant was awake and was alerted when the fire cracked the external glazing of the building.

“He alerted the other occupants and grabbed a garden house to extinguish the fire while another quick thinking occupant called the fire service.”