Horror for Leeds family after serial 'Burley arsonist' sets back garden ablaze and lights bins on fire

Dominic McGorty woke up at 5am last Saturday morning (February 4) to the smell of smoke and the sound of crackling coming from the back of his family home on Stanmore Street. He woke up his partner Elena Ginns and their 10-year-old daughter, who they say has been left “traumatised” by the incident, before escaping from the property.

The fire had been started in the recycling bin but spread to their shed and destroyed an old Ducati motorbike that was passed on to Dominic by his father before he died.

The fire service was called by a neighbour and was able to bring the fire under control “in a matter of minutes”. They told the couple though that theirs was one of a number of fires started in a similar vein in the local area on the same night and residents have become concerned there is an arsonist in the area. West Yorkshire Police have confirmed that they received a number of reports of arson on the 3 and 4 February in Burley.

Elena told the Yorkshire Evening Post that she was woken up by Dominic at 5am and when the two looked outside the shed had already set on fire and the flames were spreading up the garden. She said she went to wake her daughter up, saying: “To tell your 10-year-old to get up because the back garden’s on fire – it’s traumatising.

"She’s struggling to sleep on her own now. She’s obviously affected by it.”

Some young men were also outside and had called the fire brigade and were moving bins out of the way to stop the fire spreading. Elena said she then remembered that the motorbike and a petrol tank were in the shed and called at the men to get away from the fire.

She said: “We could hear them say that the fire brigade were on their way but that there was loads of fires in the area.

"When the fire engine came up the fireman said they had already been to called to six or seven before they came to us.”

Elena said that they began clearing up their backyard the day after the fire and found a cannister, which has been passed on to the police. Other residents have also contacted each other and are urging the police to look into the matter.

She added: “It was horrible. It was like a nightmare come true.”

Dominic added that before the recent spate of bin fires in the area, in January he and other residents had noticed the remains of fires being set in a nearby field. He said: “The worrying thing is that someone is out there doing it and is getting a taste for watching things burn.

"In this case they don’t know if someone was sleeping in the shed. It’s a scary thought.”

On the loss of his motorbike, he added: “It’s devastating. It’s not so much the bike as the memories it held of the motorcycle holidays with my father I went on.

"I was intending to keep it to pass it on again.”