Police today warned parents to keep an eye on their children following a spate of fires in central Basildon.
The most serious of the three fires, which all occurred at around 1am yesterday, threatened to destroy a market stall.
Two teenaged boys are believed to have started the blaze at Market Pavement, Basildon.
Firefighters were already tackling another blaze just 200 yards away at Basildon railway station.
At the market, they found the canopy had been set alight and flames threatened to spread to nearby stalls.
A Basildon fire station spokesman claimed the blaze could have been more serious had crews not been nearby when they were called by a local taxi driver.
The spokesman said: "We had been called out to a bin fire in the town centre and luckily we were only two or three minutes away when we got the call. If we had not got to the scene so quickly, it could have been a lot more serious."
It is being linked to two other minor blazes around the same time.
Published Friday August 27, 2004
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