Arson attack on homeless shelter

12:04pm Monday 23rd April 2007

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BOSSES of a homeless charity have vowed to carry on their work after an arson attack forced them to close.

Staff and four teenagers at Safe Space, a homeless shelter in Carr Road, Nelson, were evacuated after a fire was started in a wheelie bin behind the property.

The fire, which police believe was deliberately started at 3am on Saturday, quickly spread to the rear of the building. Three windows were blown out and the fire took part of the kitchen roof off making the property unusable.

An investigation has now been launched to try and establish the exact cause of the blaze.

Claire Bennett, project manager for charity Safe Space, which houses homeless people and helps them with training, education and employment, said the eight young people staying at the home had been rehoused with the help of Pendle Borough Council.

She said: "This is hard but we are going to continue working with the young people where they are staying at the moment."

"We are going to be calling upon other agencies to support us in doing that."

The charity, funded by grants, provides 24 hour a day care for young homeless people aged 16-25.

Ms Bennet said: "It's ended up making young homeless people homeless again.

"It's quite upsetting and devastating for the young people because it was a safe place for them and we are now in a state of turmoil.

"But the young people have been fantastic, they were shook up but have dealt with it really well."

The blaze was one of six bin fires on the street over a five hour period.

Fire services believe all the fires were started deliberately by the same person.

The first fire was on Friday evening, at 10.30pm, where a rubbish bin was set on fire at the rear of a house on Carr Road.

This was followed by a bin fire at 11pm in Victoria Park and two more bin fires.

Fire services were also called out to a shed fire on Lower Paddock Road at 3am on Saturday involving an LPG gas cylinder.

Inspector Rob Campbell, of Pennine Police, said: "There were a number of incidents over night but nothing was heard or seen.

"We believe they are all linked."

"The police are investigating them, although there is little to go on."