A FAMILY fled their home in the middle of the night after a suspec- ted arson attack.

The garden shed of a home in Church is believed to have been set alight by an ‘unscrupulous’ person at around 1am yest-erday.

Frightened residents of houses which share the courtyard, in Walmsley Close, watched as flames roared feet from their homes.

The fire service said the blaze could have been more serious had a Hynd- burn crew not been alerted so soon.

Windows cracked in the heat from the flames, and door frames were badly charred, while smoke from the burning outbuilding got into the roof space of two terraced properties.

Neighbour Jessie Bradley, 76, said: “We had just got in bed when I saw a bright flashing light through our front door and didn’t know what was going on.

“I was afraid to open the door for fear of what was waiting outside.

“When I moved closer to the window, for a better look, I realised there was a big fire out there.

“I was really afraid our house was going to set alight because it’s so close to the shed.

“The flames must have been six feet high off the top of the shed. It was so dangerous.

“Soon after, I saw firemen come running round the side of the house towards the courtyard.

“It’s so lucky they got here quickly.”

Her husband Michael, 74, said: “We’ve had drunks set fires around here before. There are always idiots making trouble. I don’t know what they’re thinking when they do things like this. Somebody could have been killed.”

Hyndburn crew manager Stephen Horrocks said: “The fire was going well when we arrived.

“We think it was prob-ably started deliberately by some unscrupulous person. The smoke got inside the roof space and there was potential for it to be a much more serious fire.

“The woman in one of the houses was a little bit distressed when the possibility of what could have happened sank in.”