FIREFIGHTERS have renewed a warning to local youngsters after crews discovered 'potential bombs' at the scenes of two fires within five hours of each other.

Accrington Fire Brigade were called out at 2.05am today to a derelict garage in Belgarth Road, Accrington, which had been deliberately set alight.

Once the fire had been extinguished, the emergency crew found a large gas cylinder at the scene.

The same firefighters had been called to an empty shed in Meadoway, Church, at 9.25pm last night where it was discovered that combustibles, including a mattress and various pieces of timber, had been built into a bonfire over an 18kg gas cylinder.

Station Officer Peter Ashworth said: "When we got there it had heated up and was about to explode so we could have lost a life.

"Cylinders are bombs waiting to go off and, if they do, someone will be killed.

"We are finding these at fires now almost on a daily basis and they are putting the lives of emergency crews and people living close by at risk -- not to mention the lives of the people who start these fires.

"If one of these potential bombs does go off it will take the life of anyone close by and destroy the building it is in.

"Unfortunately it is pretty obvious that these warnings aren't getting through to the people who start the fires.

"They obviously do not know what they are dealing with but if there was an explosion before we got there, it could have devastating consequences for anyone in the area of the blast."

Last year a firefighter was nearly killed in an explosion after youths put a canister in a building in Darwen which went off. He will never work again.

In situations where firefighters discover gas cylinders the crews take them away for disposal by the Environmental Health. But Mr Ashworth said there was a lot of them about.

He said: "Anyone who has any of these which they no longer need should ask the council to dispose of them.

"If anyone sees one which has been discarded, they should report it to the local authority so it can be safely disposed of and is no longer available to the irresponsible people who start these fires."