A quick-thinking gas fitter who put out a blazing car feared an estate could have “gone up” in flames after a masked arsonist set a car alight across the road from where he was working.

Andy Smith, 40, used a coat to quell the flames in High Holly Garth, Long Lee, Keighley, in the early hours of yesterday.

The arsonist, who was wearing a balaclava, is understood to have poured flammable liquid over a Citroen C5 before setting it alight.

Mr Smith, who was working at a house in nearby Delph Croft View, said: “I shot out and put the fire out with my jacket.

“I just wanted to put it out. I am a gas fitter and all I was thinking about is what would have happened if it had got hold of the gas pipe on the building next to the car. The whole estate could have gone up.”

The blaze quickly spread to a Ford Mondeo, which a neighbour put out using a fire extinguisher.

Mr Smith said another neighbour had detained the person carrying out the arson attack but they ran away from the scene, towards Cherry Tree Rise.

Firefighters from Keighley attended the scene but the blaze was out by the time they arrived.

They called the police and officers turned up more than two hours later.

Mr Smith said: “The police came two and a half hours later. It’s ridiculous. You can understand if it was a Saturday night but you would have thought they would have someone to deal with it quicker on a Tuesday.”

A police spokesman confirmed that police were called at 12.07am by the fire service to reports of two cars, a Citroen C5 and a Ford Mondeo, on fire on High Holly Garth in Keighley.

Supt Gary Baker said: “We are treating this incident as malicious ignition. CID are investigating and door-to-door enquiries will be carried out along with obtaining any CCTV.

“Due to a high call demand overnight, it took longer than we would have anticipated to attend the incident. However we were confident that no suspects remained at the scene and that the fire service had extinguished the fire.”

Anyone with information should contact Airedale and North Bradford CID on the non-emergency 101 number.