ANGRY council tenants on Little Hulton's Amblecote Estate claim their lives are at risk from firebugs who have been targeting empty properties.

And they are demanding urgent action from Salford Council to put new tenants into the houses which are sealed with steel shutters.

Mother-of-two Marie Griffin, a tenant in Haymill Avenue, says she and her neighbours are living in fear after a spate of arson attacks on the nearby empty houses.

Two days ago a fire was started in a brick out-house of the house next door-but-one from Marie and her family. The out-house contained the gas and electricity meters and residents said burning tiles caused small explosions.

"People were frightened to death," stormed Marie.

"Last month a fire was started in another empty house and the roof caved in." Marie, her partner, Murray, and their two children, Ben aged five, and one-year-old Elle, moved into the avenue in February after requesting a move to a larger house. But she says it is a move they have regretted ever since.

Marie, 27, claims that repeated complaints to the council from residents about the situation have fallen on deaf ears.

"There are only five houses occupied on this avenue and we are all at risk. You go to bed at night afraid of what will happen when you are asleep. Will the kids be alright? Will you still have a house in the morning?

She added: "I hope it's not going to take a death for the council to take action. Because if the situation continues as it is that is what is on the cards."

Marie believes that the only way to solve the problem is to put tenants back into the empty houses.

Neighbour Anthony Bullows shares Marie's concerns. "The situation is getting out of control and it's not just in this street - it's the whole estate." Anthony, who has a three-year-old daughter Lisa and a four-week-old son, Jason, said the council, at one point, paid security men to occupy one of the empty houses.

"They were there day and night but one day they just disappeared. And since then the problems have escalated."

And tenant, Elizabeth Whitehead, said: "Salford council have just left us to fend on our own. It's outrageous."

A spokesman for Salford Council said: "There have been a few arson incidents around the outside of empty properties in a specific area. The police have been informed and we have taken the incidents very seriously. The properties themselves are secured by screening."

She added: "We are also taking a variety of measures to market empty homes such as these, including modernising the properties followed by advertising and distributing leaflets."

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