An eagle-eyed postman has been praised after his quick-thinking stopped a major Bingley business going up in flames.

Arsonists poured petrol through the letterbox of Beton Machinery Sales Ltd in Whitley Street at around 4.50am today.

They had also attempted to start fires in one of the windows and set light to part of the company's sign.

The postman, who has not yet been named, ran to nearby cafe owner, Malcolm Chatman, who dialled 999 on his mobile phone.

Bingley fire service attended and quickly extinguished the fire.

Beton's administration manager Patrick Rice said that without their prompt action the damage could have been much worse.

He said: "It will cost thousands of pounds to repair.

"There is smoke damage and the door will have to be replaced. But it could have been much, much worse.

"It is very good of the postman and the cafe owner - they did a very good job.

"It could have been horrendous. It could have spread through the building and we have been extremely fortunate that the fire was seen so early and acted on. They were exemplary in the manner in which they reacted."

He added: "I cannot imagine who would want to do this. It is very, very strange and I don't know why someone would want to do this. People could have been on the premises. It just seems a crazy thing to do."

Mr Chatman said: "I arrived at 4.20am and was getting something out of the car when the postman said: 'Is this a fire here?' I thought of smashing the door down.

"I phoned 999 and the fire service arrived but another ten minutes and it would have been well away."

It is not the first time someone passing the area has helped prevent fires getting out of control. Last year, a security guard was rewarded after alerting the fire service to a major blaze in the neighbouring DBL Plastics.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.