Emergency services combat arson threat

They are using data base systems to build up an intelligence picture to enable them to stop deliberate fire setting which makes people's lives a misery.

Craig Thompson, divisional officer with the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said criminals and vandals were increasingly setting fires to destroy forensic evidence but others started fires because it was seen as 'a bit of fun'.

He told a meeting at Maresfield that efforts were being made to make sure one problem affecting other parts of the country did not hit Wealden.

Groups of youths were stealing top of the range vehicles, going joy-riding and finally setting light to them. They then phoned their mates to tell them what they had done and challenged them to do better. Their mates would then go out looking for a better car to do the same.

People did not always start fires to cause serious damage, said Mr Thompson. They might think it fun to set fire to a bag of rubbish, but that could cause a fence, then a shed, then a house to catch fire.

A similar chain of events led to a serious fire at Harveys brewery at Lewes, said Mr Thompson. He also recalled a fire at Tideway School, Newhaven, where 12 million damage was caused plus considerable disruption to the education of pupils who had to work in temporary buildings over a larger site.