A charity clothes bank – at a West Cumbria fire station – has been set on fire, causing around £2,500-worth of damage.
In the early hours of Thursday, the Fire Fighters Charity container, in Egremont Fire Station’s yard, was set alight. It was full of donated items from the local community.
There are five containers at the site, where people drop unwanted clothes.
Egremont Fire Station said: “Footage from a nearby CCTV camera shows a male lighting the fire at around the time of 11.20pm. He has a dog with him which looks to be a Staffy. He casually stands by the fire stoking it for around 10 minutes before walking away.
“This has resulted in damages in the region of £2,500 with the bank needing to be taken away, the fence behind it was also damaged, fees to take away all debris and the contents of the full bank which will no longer be funds that will reach the charity.”
The fire service was alerted by two members of the public just after 12am. They had tried to remove the alight bags next to the container to stop the fire spreading.
The fire station added: “All five banks were full of donated clothing at the time and the fire had the potential to spread throughout them all and the possibility of the industrial premises behind if we had not been alerted to this.”
Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101.
