FIRE crews from three towns were called out after vandals went on the rampage torching rubbish bins.

Three wheelie bins were set alight around Princes Risborough last Friday night in just 20 minutes.

But each blaze was attended by a different fire crew two of which came from as far as High Wycombe and Aylesbury.

Firefighters from Aylesbury were called first to a bin fire in Ash Road at 10.51pm. Just two minutes later a Princes Risborough fire crew attended a similar fire a few hundred yards away in Merton Road.

Finally at 11.07pm firefighters from High Wycombe went to put out a blazing Biffa bin owned by Budgens in Horns Lane.

Princes Risborough town councillor John Coombs, a former Buckinghamshire fireman, said there was nothing strange in sending three different crews to such fires.

He explained: "To members of the public it might seem strange but to firefighters it doesn't. A fire crew will stay at a bin fire until it's out so if there's another, another crew is sent.

"But if you look at it like this, three fire crews equals 15 firemen who could be doing something else."

Sub Officer Martin Blunden, based at High Wycombe Fire Station, said the fire brigade had to treat all emergency calls very seriously.

He explained: "Princes Risborough is a long way for us to go and it is a waste of time and resources when bins are set alight. If there had have been a major house fire or a road traffic accident, where someone needed cutting free, then there could have been a delay getting there."