FIREFIGHTERS attended two separate car fires in Basildon during the early hours of this morning.

One crew attended the scene in Devonshire Road at 2.15am where a silver Volkswagen Golf was alight.

Crews wore breathing apparatus and used one hose reel jet to extinguish the blaze, which had affected a neighbouring vehicle, within 15 minutes.

Firefighters were alerted to the second fire, at 6am in Gloucester Park, by a lifeguard on his way to work at Basildon Sporting Village.

One crew attended and again used one hose reel and wore breathing apparatus to extinguish the flames in around 15 minutes.

Leading firefighter Christopher Houlder-Greenway said: “It looks like they drove round and round on the pitch before knocking down a set of goalposts.

“They then set fire to the car in the middle of the football pitch.

“Both incidents are suspected arson attacks.”

Police were informed by the fire service about both incidents and will be liaising with them regarding the first blaze.

Regarding the second fire, a police spokesperson said: “Around 6.20am on Saturday morning fire service contacted police about a deliberate car fire that was in the middle of the football pitch in Gloucester Park.

“It was a blue Ford Fiesta that had been reported as stolen earlier in the evening from the Basildon area.”

Anyone who has any information about either of these incidents is asked to contact police at Basildon on 101.