"Do you know what your children are up to over the holidays?"

That is the question being posed to parents by the North WalesArson Reduction Teamwhich is appealing to residents to help stamp out deliberate fire starting during the Whitsun holidays.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has been working hard to drive down the incidence of all deliberate fires over recent years - but as the weather gets warmer and during school holidays, there is often a rise in the number of deliberate incidents.

Driving down deliberate fires has involved a concerted effort through a variety of initiatives, including partnership working with other agencies - such as through the work of the joint Arson Reduction Team with North Wales Police, youth engagement through the Phoenix Project, as well as a range of targeted safety campaigns.

These efforts have achieved a significant 68% reduction in deliberate fire setting in the last ten years and there has been a continuous downward trend during the last four years.

Kevin Jones, Arson Reduction Manager said: "This continuous decrease is good news - but we rely on parents and members of the community to work with us to continue to drive home the messages on the consequences of deliberate fires.

"we witnessed a spate of deliberate fires over the Easter holidays and to combat this problem we are appealing again to the community to help us ensure the numbers of deliberate fires are kept to a minimum over the Whitsun break when youngsters will again be off school.

"Deliberate fires place tremendous pressure on resources, with our crews tied up for a considerable length of time trying to bring them under control, which in turn delays firefighters from attending life threatening incidents.

"My appeal is directed in particular to parents and guardians: please try to be more aware of the whereabouts of your children and impress upon them the fact that deliberate fires endanger lives.

"Stop and think about the consequences - it could be you or a member of your family that requires our assistance and we may not be able to get to you as quickly or as easily as we would like because we have to deal with a deliberate fire."

Setting fires is a criminal offence and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service is actively working alongside North Wales Police to combat deliberate incidents.

You can follow our campaign to reduce deliberate fires on our social media by following #helpstopdeliberatefires and on our website www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk

Anyone with information on such crimes is advised to anonymously call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or contact 101.