Children as young as three have been visited by firefighters and psychologists as part of a campaign to stamp out arson among youngsters in Essex.

More than 130 children aged three to 16 underwent counselling during Essex Fire and Rescue Service's Juvenile Firesetters Scheme in 1999.

Now brigade bosses want to step up the profile of the service and claim 95 per cent of children involved in the scheme have not reoffended.

However, the brigade is keen to emphasise that most of the arsons were simply down to a morbid curiosity rather than malice.

Brigade community education boss, station officer Matt Furber, said: "The aim of the scheme is to assist these young people and find out why they do what they do. Ultimately, it is to try to make sure they don't do it again in the future."

Specially-trained uniformed and non-uniformed officers accompany child psychologists on all visits, he said. Much of their work came directly from calls by worried parents who felt their children needed counselling.

But he added: "There are obviously cases where fire crews have attended incidents started by children."

A high proportion of children visited last year were under six. He said: "It was usually down to the fact that it was their first time playing with a box of matches. On the whole, there was little malice or intent.

"But, while many cases are unintentional, there are complex cases where more counselling work is needed."

The service is limited by the number of volunteers the brigade can supply, but the plan is to give parents who may be worried about their children's fire-starting habits a place to turn to.

Mr Furber said: "We have found that counselling has a good success rate in curbing offending."

The brigade's community education department can be contacted directly on 01277 848426, or parents can visit any local fire station.

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