Man admits three arsons in Harborough village

Daniel Milburn, 33, admitted starting the three fires in Husbands Bosworth on the night of Wednesday, August 29 / Thursday, August 30.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of arson with intent to endanger life, and one charge of arson with intent to recklessly endanger life when he appeared at Leicester Crown Court.

Milburn, of no fixed abode, will be sentenced at the same court on November 6.

The most serious of the three August fires was started in bins and vehicles beneath a coach house style flat in Mowsley Court, Husbands Bosworth.

Apartment occupants the McNally family had to make a midnight escape from the flat.

“My husband woke up just before midnight and saw flames,” Penny McNally, 34, told the Mail at the time. “We could hear the fire too – it sounded like fireworks going off around us.”

Penny, husband Tom, 38, and their two young children aged five and one, were not injured in the blaze.

Earlier on the same night, Milburn had set fire to a bin outside the Brook House Care Home on Bell Lane, Husbands Bosworth.

Brook House is home to 30 elderly residents.

On this occasion, the fire did not spread to the home itself.

A short time later it was reported that a van had been set alight in Church Street, just around the corner from Mowsley Court. The van was badly damaged.

Resident Nick Bradshaw, whose house is a pavement’s width from the burnt-out van, told the Mail it was fortunate the vehicle did not explode.

Milburn was arrested by police in the Husbands Bosworth area shortly after the three arsons.