IT IS gratifying to report today that West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service seems to be winning the battle against the arson attacks which have blighted the district.

There has been a significant fall in the number of reported arsons, with the 1,670 maliciously-started blazes last year showing a fall of almost 1,000 over the last five years, with the 2010-11 total being 2,636.

It can be no coincidence that a specific task force was launched in 2012 aimed at making sure buildings, particularly vulnerable derelict buildings, were secured.

And it seems that preventative measures have also been successful, with awareness raised among young people about the real danger to life as well as property fires can pose.

Education projects run with the police, the fire service and schools have helped to ram home the message of just how quickly a small fire deliberately started can escalate and become lethal.

But the inescapable fact is that there were still almost 1,700 deliberately-started blazes in the district over the last 12 months, and there is still a long way to go before the battle with the firebugs is won.

That is something the fire service’s Tom Rhodes accepts, saying the battle against arson is slowly being won – but stressing one arson attack is too many.

It takes seconds to light a fire and minutes for it to spread dramatically, but it can take hours to put it out. Worse than that, each of these fires is a potential risk for the firefighters who have to tackle it.

More needs to be done to reduce the number still further, but credit must be gone for the real steps taken towards victory in this fight.