POLICE and fire chiefs are investigating a potentially deliberate fire in Brierfield.

Firefighters were called to Cambridge Street at 4.10am today, where they discovered flames coming from a sofa on the ground floor of the mid-terraced property.

Nobody was in the house at the time and it was uncertain whether anybody had been living there.

Firefighter Chris Walton said: “The settee in the living room was pretty well destroyed by fire and smoke.

“There was also smoke damage to the rest of the property.

“The police are looking into it and we will also have our own investigations to determine the cause.

“It is possible that it is a suspicious fire.”

Two fire crews from Nelson and another from Burnley spent around 90 minutes putting out the flames and making sure the house was safe.