POLICE and fire brigade bosses are appealing for information after two homes were targeted by arsonists.
Lit pieces of paper were posted through the letterboxes of houses in Samsung Place and Thornton Close, in Newton Aycliffe, overnight on Thursday.
The owners of the home in Thornton Close were asleep upstairs at the time.
When they woke up at 6.45am, they discovered a hole had been scorched in the carpet behind the door where the paper had burned out.
In the second incident, at about 1am on Friday, the blaze spread to the hallway of an end terrace house in Samsung Place. The occupants were out at the time and two anonymous callers contacted the police and fire brigade to report seeing flames.
It is thought an accelerant, such as petrol, was used.
Ken Dixon, station manager at Newton Aycliffe fire station, condemned the attacks as "thoughtless and dangerous". He said: "Even though the fires weren't serious, the incidents themselves were.
"Luckily, everyone was okay but it could easily have been a life-threatening situation."
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