TRAMPS lighting bonfires on derelict land in Worcester could cause a major explosion, residents fear.

Edward Vernalls claims vagrants who congregate on the land at the back of Morton Place and Broad Street become drunk and light bonfires.

Mr Vernalls, aged 34, a detachment commander for the Malvern Troop Army Cadets, fears the worst because gas cylinders have been left on the land and he thinks they could be the next items to be thrown on the fire.

"They will burn anything and we get smoke coming into our flats," said Mr Vernalls, of Broad Street. "I'd like to see everything that is of a combustible material got rid of.

"The tramps have started to come around here recently. A month ago there was no problem but about three weeks ago they started to congregate here.

"It began with small fires but then went on to bigger ones."

Last week, he was told about a large gathering of vagrants, which resulted in a massive bonfire. Then, on Tuesday evening, he discovered one of the tramps, who lives on the land, lying unconscious next to a fire with his hand in the embers.

Mr Vernalls, a student at University College Worcester, has first aid training and revived him. But the vagrant refused treatment from paramedics and left the area before police arrived.

"I will be contacting the fire safety officer from the fire brigade to see what they say about the issue," said Mr Vernalls.

A Worcester City Council environmental health officer said that since it was private land it could not force anyone to move off it.

However, it had arranged for the gas cylinders to be collected.

The officer would not reveal who owned the land.

"We are not dealing with the complaints about smoke because we have been told the tramps are no longer there," he said

The vagrants were not on site when the Evening News visited on Friday afternoon. However, there was the remains of a fire and a fridge stocked with food and beer on the land.