Current hotspots such as Hyde Park and Balby will come in for special attention in a bid to reduce the vast cost of attending malicious fires.

It is calculated they cost South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service £2,000 a time to put out but the human cost could be much worse - a fire crew tied up at a minor incident might be unable to save a life in a major house fire elsewhere in the district.

The worrying increase in arson - many of them wheelie bin fires - has prompted the fire service to appoint Watch Manager Pete Best to the new post of Arson Intervention Officer and he has been tasked to work closely with Doncaster's Anti-Social Behaviour Fire working group, made up of police, council and St Leger Homes officers.

Last summer's floods kept arson figures down but from August to November last year Doncaster recorded figures of 1,200 - far above the target of 170 a month laid down by headquarters.

Close study of the firebugs' activities showed the terraced streets off Chequer Road, Hyde Park, and near Sandford Road, Balby, where alley gates have not been installed, were among the worst hit areas.

Mr Best said: "We found that terraced streets that have got alleygates, such as the Nether Hall area, tends to stop fly-tipping and wheelie bins being left out. If a wheelie bin is on the street or alley outside the boundary of someone's house it becomes an easy target.

"They are easy to set light to and people don't think they cause much damage.

"But the potential for danger is there because flames from a wheelie bin can quickly reach 20ft high and endanger property while people are asleep.

"The new green bins are often full of cardboard so go up easily and they don't make a noise. Within 12 minutes the flames are the height of a house and that is a serious danger to the occupants."

Last November a man died after his flat in Askern caught fire because a wheelie bin had been torched.

"We would ask the public to be more responsible by making sure they recycle properly and do not leave their bin lids ajar or open.

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