ARSONISTS started a fire on a building site in Burnley in the early hours of Monday.

Firefighters were called to site in Liverpool Road, Rosegrove, at 5.20am, after roof trusses were set alight.

The former Sycamore Farm land is being turned into a housing estate and Burnley fire watch manager Mark Woodward said there was a danger the flames could have spread to machinery.

He said: “When we arrived it was a well-developed fire involving roof trusses against the side of a shipping container.

“We prevented it spreading to other containers and also to vehicles adjacent to it.”

Firefighters fought the blaze for more than an hour, before using breaking tools to get into the container and cool it.

A winch and lighting unit was also used on the site. Mr Woodward said the fire was ‘deliberate’.

Police confirmed they were treating the incident as suspicious.