FIREBUGS ran wild in a York street early today, torching three cars and a trailer and sending one man's worldly goods up in smoke.

The multiple arson attacks happened in Etty Avenue, Tang Hall, at about 3.30am today. A Citron and the trailer suffered minor damage. But a Ford Sierra and a Hyundai were completely burned-out.

Sierra owner Vinny Moore, 27, came home from work to find his car wrecked - and most of his possessions destroyed or badly damaged.

Vinny said: "I was just moving back to my wife's and all my stuff was in the car, my clothes, CDs, CD player, everything. What hasn't been burned is smoke damaged, I can't believe it. I'm not insured either because I'd only just transferred the insurance to my new car and I was going to sell this, so I've lost everything. I've been living in Clifton and people give that a bad name, but I never had a problem there. Then as soon as I move back here, this happens."

The trailer was set alight outside Helen Pilcher's front garden.

Helen, who has lived in the Etty Avenue area all her life, said she was scared it would set her fence alight.

"It is somebody bored. Something serious needs doing about them," she said.

Mother-of-two Lisa Moore said: "It is senseless isn't it. It always seems to be this street as well, but it is a nice street. It is just a few bad ones spoiling it for everyone else."

Inspector Glyn Payne, of York Police, confirmed that they had received two reports of incidents in Etty Avenue. He said: "We were contacted by a man who told us that someone was trying to set fire to his Citron Picasso, while outside his property. The other recorded incident came from the fire brigade who asked us to attend as two cars and a trailer were on fire, and it was believed to be suspicious".

Updated: 12:19 Saturday, June 14, 2003