FIRE crews today slammed the arsonists who set fire to a caravan containing gas canisters.

As crews from Blackburn Fire Station threw up an exclusion zone around the blazing caravan, in Bonsall Street, Mill Hill, the fire spread a neighbouring garage, setting alight its asbestos roof.

The incident occurred shortly after 9pm last night and is being treated as suspicious.

A spokesman said: "Not only did we have the risk that the canisters inside the caravan would explode but we also had to deal with the asbestos risk.

"It is a very dangerous substance and when it explodes when heated, its particles are spread throughout the atmosphere posing a great risk to our fire crews.

"It was a mindless and dangerous act."