ARSONISTS risked the lives of firefighters when they set bins ablaze next to gas cylinders at a Worcester leisure centre.

Three fire crews were called to Perdiswell Leisure Centre at 11.15pm last night to deal with the fire, which had been started in wheelie bins near the building.

The blaze had been started in rubbish next to three propane gas cylinders, which could have exploded if heated up.

Leading firefighter Dave Haimes, based at Worcester fire station, described the blaze as potentially very dangerous.

"If the cylinders had reached a certain temperature, they would have exploded and created a potential missile," he said.

"This meant we had to fight the fire from behind walls as we couldn't really get near it.

"Luckily enough, there wasn't a lot of damage. I'd have said it was deliberately started."

The Bilford Road leisure centre was the scene of a similar blaze on Wednesday, August 14, when a fire was started in bins next to the wall of the centre, causing extensive damage to brickwork.

Nigel Mansfield, sports and recreation manager at Worcester City Council, the centre's owners, said action was being taken to avert further attacks.

"We're going to have to build a cage for the bins fairly rapidly if this is going to continue," he said.

"This isn't going to happen in just a day or two so, in the meantime, we'll have to keep them in an external store of some sort or chain them up to stop people setting fire to them."