ARSON accounts for three out of every four fires tackled by Greater Manchester Fire Service with the bill totalling an estimated £37 million a year.
This month the fire service is running a campaign to highlight the dangers of arson, with posters showing a young man in handcuffs and bearing the caption "you - in a whole world of trouble".
The posters are being put up in high risk areas on hoardings, inside buses and on phone boxes.
"Arson is the largest single cause of major fires in Greater Manchester," said assistant county fire officer Steve Beckley.
"Many of them start as small fires lit as a game or bit of fun, but there is nothing amusing about it.
"The main culprits are young males aged between 11 and 18 years, but sometimes as young as seven years old!
"We want to teach them that deliberately starting fires has serious consequences."
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