128 deliberate fires started in West Yorkshire last year
22 arson arrests were made in the same time period.
Details of the 22 arson arrests made in the past year will be discussed by West Yorkshire Fire Service bosses this week.
Flat fires in Bradford, a blaze at a sports stadium in Wakefield and the torching of a police van in Leeds are among the recent incidents that led to people being arrested and charged on suspicion of arson.
And numerous people from across West Yorkshire were handed prison sentences for arson in the past year, with much of the evidence for the prosecutions gained by the Service’s Fire Investigation Officers.
A report detailing the arrests and prosecutions for arson cases will go before members of West Yorkshire Fire Authority’s Community Safety Committee, made up of Councillors from across the area, on Friday.
Investigation officers are called to the scene of fires to determine the cause – and whether they were deliberate. Members will hear that in 2020 there were 231 “Tier 2” fire investigations carried out, of which 128 were concluded to be deliberate fires.
These investigations have led to 22 people being charged with arson in the past year, with some cases still working their way through the court system.
In Bradford there have been a number of major sentences for arson incidents.
In October Samantha Spencer was sentenced to three years in prison for starting a fire at her flat at Bentley Carter Apartments in Little Horton Lane.
The Court heard that Spencer, then 29, had been relocated to Bradford by Kent County Council to start a new life.
On May 12 2020 she set fire to the residential block in the early hours, endangering around 35 of the building’s residents, many of whom were classed as vulnerable.
The court was told that the arson was a “cry for help.”
In November Patrick Rittich was jailed for three years and four months over an arson in Birk Lea Street, West Bowling last March.
The court heard that Rittich was a drug addict, and had started the fire due to paranoid thoughts that his partner was cheating on him.
He had doused his boxer shorts in white spirits before putting them in a bath and setting fire to them. The blaze badly damaged his home, a back to back terrace.
A youth was given a 16 week caution for an arson attack that badly damaged Thornes Park Stadium in Wakefield.
And an adult and a 14 year old boy were charged with arson and criminal damage late last year in relation to an incident where a police crime scene van was set ablaze on the Halton Moor Estate of Leeds in September 2019.
Shane Kameka was handed a three year 11 month sentence in September for setting fire to the front door of a house on Cedar Place, Armley in July.
One arson took place at Wetherby Young Offenders’ Institute and led to a man getting 21 months detention.
A man who was arrested on suspicion of causing a fire at a hostel on Manningham Lane, run by the Bradford Cyrenians, in January is expected to go on trial this November.
The report adds: “The Fire Investigation Officer team are often left at the scene of the most harrowing incidents. In addition to regular contact when they are on-scene, a thorough mental health support programme has bene established.”
The committee will meet online on Friday at 10.30am.