Arsonists put flat-dwellers' lives at risk in eighth attack on estate in Milton Keynes

A fire was started deliberately in a fifth-storey corridor of a block of flats in Serpentine Court on Bletchley's Lakes Estate.

It was started at 7.25pm on Saturday, the peak time for families being inside their flats watching television and for small children to be in bed.

And it prompted a major response from 35 firefighters, who feared a Grenfell Tower-type disaster if the blaze spread.

There were four fire engines from MK and also two 'borrowed' from Leighton Buzzard.

Fortunately residents managed to put the fire out before the fire service arrived, but firefighters used a thermal imaging camera and cleared the area of dangerous smoke.

Two weeks ago, there was a weekend of drama at the Lakes Estate when four different fires were caused in wheelie bins in the space of an hour outside Serpentine court flats.

Firefighters arrived promptly to deal with them but Bucks Fire and Rescue Service warned any of these blazes could easily have spread to the nearby six storey block of flats.

The same weekend firefighters were called to a tree that had been set on fire in nearby Garrowmore Grove, a mattress set alight near a children's play area in Windemere Drive and a pile of leaves burning in Serpentine Court.

A fire service spokesman said: “Arson is a crime that can cause injury or death and can quickly spread to damage property, the environment and communities.”

If you know who the arsonist is, call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.