A GROUP of youths deliberately set fire to an open grassy area, putting themselves and others in danger.

Firefighters rushed to the fire in Jasmine Close, Canvey, after reports of a blaze in the scrubland area on the island at 6,10pm.

They got the fire under control by 6.20pm.

Police were also made aware of the fire but did not attend.

Councillors warned of the dangerous of children playing with fire.

Barry Campagna, Canvey Independent Party councillor and town mayor, said: “These people do not release what sort of damage could be caused to people’s property if it gets out of hand.

“This also means that if the fire service are dealing with incidents like this then they might not be able to attend more serious incidents.”

Barry Palmer, Canvey Independent Party councillor for Canvey South, said it has happened in this area before.

He said: “Last time it was issues with antisocial behaviour and it seems to have returned again.

“It is very bad and damages and destroys our island open spaces and wildlife.

“There is no reason for people to behave in this way at all, some people say that it is happening because young people have nothing to do on island but this isn’t the case.

“There is loads and loads for young people to do on the island.

“We have lots of community groups such as scouts and sports clubs such as football and rugby.

“It seems that young people don’t want to be involved in community group or anything think like that and it seems that it is down to street credit.”

Mr Palmer said there is danger that one day a group of youths will do this and there will be a lot of serious damaged caused by one of these fires.

The incident happened on June 3.