Oldham: More than 3,000 arson attacks in the last five years

A freedom of information request sent to Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) by The Oldham Times has revealed the true extent of arson in the borough, with 3,690 fires intentionally set between January 2018 and October 2023.

Of those, 3,020 were arson attacks while the remaining 670 were carried out by arsonists setting fire to their own property - most commonly to claim on their home insurance.

Derelict building on Thompson Lane, Chadderton, which is subject to frequent arson attacks (Image: Joe Yates, Newsquest)

Speaking on the matter, Independent Cllr Marc Hince said: "There's obviously a high trend of deliberate fires in Oldham, I've looked into it myself - it's way above the national average.

"It's dropped a massive strain on our fire service who already have other pressures to to deal with, but it all boils down to crime ultimately - that's the elephant in the room.

"It floats back to the lack of policing really - whatever the crime is, if it's not seen to be tackled visibly then it will just carry on."

A house attached to a derelict garage on Thompson Lane, Chadderton, was knocked down towards the end of last year, after years of hellish fires (Image: Newsquest)

The Shaw representative continued: "The thing with arson attacks is that they are rarely connected so that means there could be 3,000 odd culprits - so that's around one per cent of Oldham's population.

"My sympathy is with the fire service, people set fires for fun believe it or not - and the majority come from delinquency."

The figures also revealed that there have been 147 fires started intentionally in unoccupied buildings in the same time scale.

It comes as The Oldham Times reported how two derelict buildings on Thompson Lane, Chadderton, had been subject to frequent arson attacks as youths terrorise the neighbourhood.

The old Chadderton Car & Van Hire site, on Thompson Lane, where a derelict building was knocked down towards the end of last year due to anti-social behaviour (Image: Joe Yates, Newsquest)

However, despite there being over 3,000 deliberate fires in the borough in five years, there has been a year-on-year decline in the number of intentional fires.

In 2018, 823 were set by arsonists and attended to by the fire service in Oldham compared to 454 recorded from January till October last year - a 44 per cent decrease.

The full figures for deliberate fires are: 654 in 2019, 631 a year later, in 2021 there were 628 recorded, while 2022 saw a sharp decline with 500 deliberate fires.

Out of all the deliberate fires, GMFRS visited the 277 buildings more than twice in the last five years.

The Oldham Times contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment but they did not reply by deadline.