Homes evacuated due to burning cylinder 'bomb blast' fears

Nov 10 2008 By Andrew Hirst

A FIRE chief today hit out at children who "diced with death" at Linthwaite.

Youngsters set fire to a cylinder full of acetylene gas – causing fire crews to evacuate two houses and throw a safety cordon around the scene.

And fire officer Mike Dobbin warned: "It was an extremely foolish thing to do.

"These cylinders can go off like a bomb and the kids were very lucky they did not get killed and we didn’t have houses flattened."

Fire crews from Slaithwaite had to watch for 2½ hours while the acetylene burned itself out.

"It was like a flame thrower, with a three-foot jet of flame", said Mr Dobbin. "We kept watch on with thermal image cameras then cooled down the cylinder once the flames were out".