A FIREFIGHTER suffered a broken bone in his back after falling through a floor while tackling an arson at a derelict mill.

Chris Farrow, a retained crew member from Bacup, was part of a 30-man team defending several highly explosive acetylene cylinders in Albert Mill off Market Street.

Fire officers and police are now investigating the blaze at the four-storey building, which started late last night.

Locally fire crews said the building has become a magnet for vandals and arsonists in recent weeks.

Incident Comm-ander Gary Monk said: “It beggars belief that someone should have started this fire deliberately, an incident that has led to the injury of one of our firefighters.

“The intervention of firefighters ensured that the incident was brought to a close without endangering people living in the vicin-ity.”

Mr Monk said that Mr Farrow, who is in his twenties, was wearing a breathing kit and was putting out the fire with colleagues from Bacup fire station in the ground floor of the property when he dropped through to the basement.

It is thought that he fell through a hole in the floor or a trapdoor.

He was taken to Rochdale General Hospital for treatment to a fractured vertebrae in his back.

Mr Farrow’s injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

An exclusion zone of 200 metres was set up around the fire at around 8pm on Friday as fears of an explosion grew. People were told to stay indoors.

Mr Monk said the initial fire, which started when rubbish was torched, was efficiently extinguished.

But he said the presence of acetylene cylinders made the job more difficult.

He said: “Acetylene is a highly explosive gas that becomes unstable and more likely to explode when cylinders are jarred when hot.”

Anyone with any information about the arson is asked to call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.