Reader films police van inferno (From York Press)

Reader films police van inferno

9:33am Thursday 26th October 2006 in News By Tom Stirling

"I HATE this place. I hate being here. It's a terrible place to live - but unless you can afford to buy out of it, you're stuck."

Those are the words of Leslie Briddon, as he watched a police van erupt into a fireball on York's Bell Farm estate.

Mr Briddon was driving past as the blaze took hold - and used a video camera to record the entire incident.

The astonishing footage can be seen in our video news section.

Meanwhile, police were today continuing to investigate the fire. Officers said early indications suggest a box full of burning paper was pushed underneath the van to set it alight.

As reported in yesterday's Press, dozens of residents gathered to watch as the torched police van went up in flames in Byland Avenue, off Huntington Road.

The drama unfolded just after 9pm on Tuesday night. Two officers were following up unrelated inquiries at a house nearby, and had left their van parked in the road.

Within minutes, the vehicle was ablaze.

Mr Briddon, 40, told The Press: "My brother popped round, and said he had seen a police car on fire. I grabbed the camera, jumped in my van and parked up nearby.

"I've known of homeowners' cars to be damaged and broken into at the exact same spot, but never anything like a police vehicle."

Eight more police vehicles arrived and sealed off the road while firefighters tackled the blaze. The torched van was removed later that night.

Mr Briddon has lived in nearby Kirkham Avenue for ten years. He said the latest incident was yet another offence in a catalogue of crime to strike the area.

He said: "We get vandalism, theft, criminal damage - everything. I recently had a motorcycle stolen. I reported it to the police, but got very little response.

"In the end I went out to scour the area. I caught the thieves on it, dragged them off and got the bike back."

He added: "I am fed up. This is a terrible place to live - but unless you can afford to buy out of it, you're stuck.

"It is so demoralising. It gets to the point where because you live in an area where no one cares about it, you don't care about it either. I hate this place. I hate being here."

North Yorkshire Police spokesman Tony Lidgate said the incident was "very unusual". He said: "This is an isolated incident in an area where police relations with local people are good."

He said one youth had been arrested and released on bail.