FIREFIGHTERS spent a number of hours tacking what has been described as a "difficult fire" in the basement of an iconic property on Barrow Island.

Crews from Barrow, Ulverston and two others, believed to be from Grange and Broughton, were called to the derelict building in Buccleuch Dock Road at around 2.30pm yesterday afternoon.

A fire, believed to be deliberate, had started in the building's basement.

Because of the location of the fire, and the layout of the building, firefighters were at the scene for a number of hours extinguishing the blaze.

After the incident, station manager Roger Exley, who attended the fire, said: "Another job well done by firefighters across the Furness area, dealing with a difficult fire in the basement of a property in Barrow."

While the incident was ongoing, Walney's on-call fire crew, tasked to provide cover for the Barrow crew, was called to a skip fire in the back yard at a house in Bernard Street.