A FIREFIGHTER has told Councillors that the high numbers of arson incidents in Bradford is linked with levels of deprivation in the city.
West Yorkshire Fire Service has seen call outs to arson incidents in Bradford rise year on year for the past six years, although they expect the figure to finally come down in the coming year.
And at a meeting of the Fire Authority's Community Safety Committee on Friday, Councillors from across West Yorkshire were told that these high numbers were linked to the high numbers of deprived areas across Bradford.
They were also told that while the word arson conjures up images of balaclava clad criminals hurling Molotov cocktails, most incidents were small scale, such as rubbish being set alight or fires caused by discarded cigarettes.
Scott Donegan, area manager for prevention and response, was updating the committee on the service's "targets" for the coming year.
The targets are produced annually, and are realistic predictions of how many incidents the service expect to be called out to next year.
In Bradford the three year average target for 2017/20 stood at 2,193 arson incidents a year.
This is compared to just 982 in Kirklees, 382 in Calderdale and 2,103 in Leeds.
But due to work by the fire service to reduce arsons, including awareness programmes with young people, the arson predictions for next year is 2,156 incidents.
Despite just being a small drop, Mr Donegan said this was the first time in six years arson incidents are not expected to rise.
He said: "Arson figures in Bradford do seem to be quite high compared to the rest of the region.
"Bradford has struggled with anti social behaviour in recent years. Arson does sound quite bad, arson means any deliberate fire, it could be a bin on fire. Not every arson is someone throwing a petrol bomb at a house."
He said a fire on a grass verge at the side of a road could be classed as arson, even if it was just caused by someone throwing a lit cigarette on dry grass rather than by someone wanting to cause damage and destruction.
Referring to the new target figures, he said: "The arson targets are coming down slightly in Bradford for the first time in six years.
"Arson incidents have risen in Bradford for the past six years, but actions we're taking are having an effect and we expect the figures to drop for the first time in six years."
He added: "High numbers of arson incidents are linked with deprivation. In areas with high levels of deprivation you will tend to see more fires."
Recent data has found Bradford to be the 13th most deprived local authority area in the country, and second most deprived in Yorkshire (after Hull).
Leeds Councillor Peter Harrand (Cons, Alwoodley) questioned why the rising arson rates seemed to be worse in Bradford, adding: "There are similar areas of deprivation in Leeds too, but we don't see these figures."
Mr Donegan replied: "It does happen in Leeds, but there are more areas of deprivation in Bradford than Leeds."