A MAN has been arrested after a third blaze in less than a month hit the same caravan storage site.

Police were today questioning a 20-year-old man from the Accrington area following the latest incident at Paintins Caravans, Leyland Street, Accrington.

Fire crews from Accrington were called to the scene at 6am today and found two caravans on fire.

The vans were both destroyed, but fire crews managed to prevent the blaze spreading to other vehicles.

On Saturday April 24 more than 20 firefighters tackled a blaze which destroyed nine vehicles and damaged several more.

Another fire at the site two weeks earlier destroyed one caravan and badly damaged two others.

Accrington fire sub-officer Keith Cunliffe said: "We are treating this as an arson attack and the two caravans were destroyed by the fire. "Fortunately, the vans were in a fairly open space this time, so the fire didn't spread.

"During the fire last week, we had a problem in that some people had stored cylinders in the vans, which they are not supposed to do, and some had exploded.

"We were mindful of that this time and kept far enough back to stay safe, but as it turned out there were no cylinders involved last night."

A spokesman for Accrington CID said: "A man was arrested on suspicion of arson at the compound at the same time as the blaze.

"He will be interviewed today and we are still making further inquiries into the arson attack last weekend to see if the two incidents are linked."

No one at Paintins Caravans was today available for comment.

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