VANDALS with matches almost burned down one of Warrington's most historic buildings on Wednesday, say firefighters.

The Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel was the birthplace of Warrington's Academy and the place North and South author Elizabeth Gaskell buried her young son.

A fire was started in the building adjacent to and owned by the chapel at 6.15pm on April 20.

The building is already in a poor state of repair, with dry rot covering most of the floorboards and asbestos lining its pipes.

Firefighters are warning that in the future, if the building is empty, they will not risk their lives by entering the 'death trap'.

Sub officer Rob Milnes said: "I will not commit crews to such a dangerous building unless there is someone in there. The floorboards are so rotten they are ready to collapse. It is a death trap."

After putting out the fire, he went back in to check the building and realised the pipes were insulated with asbestos, so fire fighters had to be decontaminated.

He said: "It was the old fashioned, nasty asbestos, the type that gets in your lungs and gives you cancer. If in the future the building is lit and starts to collapse the asbestos would be spread across Warrington in the smoke.

"We suspect it is children who started the fire because you have to crawl over roofs to get in. They will have been exploring. There is also evidence of drug use - we found needles in there. It is not somewhere children, or anyone else should be."