CLEVELAND Fire Brigade is looking for a teenage artist to design a poster with a safety message which will be understood by other young people.

The brigade said there has been a large reduction in the number of deliberate bonfire incidents in recent years - a drop from 248 in 2003 to 181 last year.

"Let's hope this year we are reporting even lower figures," said Stuart Hagon, the brigade's community safety officer.

All year-eight students in the four district council areas of Stockton, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Hartlepool have been invited to design a poster for this year's competition on the theme of the misuse of bonfires and illegal use of fireworks.

Prizes have been donated - Autoplus gave a bike helmet, lock and lights, WH Smith donated vouchers, Toys R Us gave Lord of the Rings books and Middlesbrough Football Club gave a signed shirt.

A DVD has been produced by the brigade's Young Firefighters Association to be shown in schools across Cleveland to warn of the dangers of playing with fireworks and building bonfires.

The winning poster from this year's competition will be used to head up brigade safety strategy next year.

Mr Hagon, who is organising the competition, said: "The aim of this competition is to get the kids to really think about what the dangers are of building a bonfire or setting off their own fireworks unsupervised.

"We go into schools in the run-up to Bonfire Night to talk to them about how dangerous fireworks and bonfires are and by them doing a poster they are showing us that they understand the messages we are giving them."

The posters will be judged at the end of this month.