Fire services in Hereford and Worcester faced 14 cases of arson last year, figures from the Home Office show.

In the 2017-18 financial year, the Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service attended 14 deliberately started house fires, four per cent of the 367 house fires in the area.

Since 2013, one person has been killed in an arson attack.

The figures show that 14 people lost their lives in incidents attended by fire services over the last five years, five in the last year alone.

There were 108 casualties last year, including 43 people who were taken to hospital as a result of their injuries.

Dave Green, national officer at the Fire Brigades Union, said: "Starting fires deliberately in the home is a heinous crime. Rightfully, it is a serious criminal offence punishable by law. Arsonists do not just put the immediate victims at risk; they put whole communities and firefighters themselves in jeopardy.

"The fire and rescue service is already stretched to the limit in the fire cover they can provide. If firefighters are dealing with an arson at the same time as another fire call comes in, then those other victims are looking at a long wait before we can get to them."

Across England, 263 people lost their lives in fires in 2017-18, including 20 in deliberately started fires. The Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington in June 2017, which claimed 72 lives, meant the figure was the highest for any year since 2007-08.

There were more than 30,000 house fires across the country over the year, over 3,200 of which were started deliberately.