Youths are being warned they are putting lives at danger by deliberately starting fires in unoccupied houses.

The warning has come from station officer Tony Suggitt, from Grangetown Fire Station, after 15 firefighters spent more than three hours fighting a blaze in an unoccupied terraced house in Granville Road, Grangetown.

The fire quickly spread to the roof of the property and to four adjoining properties, resulting in firefighters being removed from the roof area as it was in danger of collapsing.

Fortunately the fire did not spread to occupied properties close by, which would have resulted in them having to be evacuated.

Mr Suggitt said: "The youngsters were lucky to escape this quite severe blaze as they could quite easily have got themselves trapped.

"There are still people living close by who may have needed to be evacuated and this incident also caused a danger to firefighters who had to work with a roof which threatened to collapse.

"We had to withdraw the firefighters for their own safety and they had to fight the fire from outside.

"Also, whilst we are dealing with these sort of fires we may be needed elsewhere, where families may be put at risk. "We just want these youngsters to think about their actions."

The fire broke out at around 2am today and caused severe fire damage to five properties.