MORE than 300 marajuana plants went up in smoke in a flat above a cafe in Warbreck Moor last night, in a blaze sparked by a tampered electric meter.
A 65-year-old neighbour was rescued by fire crews and was treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.
The business below the first floor cannabis farm was destroyed as the fire spread during the early hours.
Now residents are being urged to keep gun toting criminal gangs out of their neighbourhoods by calling the police, anonymously, if they suspect dope is being grown in properties near by.
Fire investigators say the cause of the blaze was dangerous electrics often found in cannabis farms where those growing the plants seek to avoid detection by fiddling the electricity meter.
Officers found 302 cannabis plants being grown in four rooms of the flat which they estimate to be capable of producing up to £1.2 million worth of cannabis in a year.
Not much left of the electricity meter
Merseyside Police says an investigation is now under way to find the gang responsible for putting lives at risk by growing the drug.
Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Richardson, the head of Merseyside Police’s Matrix Serious Organised Crime investigation unit, urged members of the public to report suspicious activity.
He said: "Cannabis is not a harmless drug and the quantities we are finding every day shows its not just people doing it to feed their own casual habit but in fact organised criminal gangs who pose a real risk to the wider community. In their efforts to protect what is a lucrative criminal enterprise from their rivals, these criminals bring problems such as violence and gun crime to the streets of Merseyside where decent, law-abiding people live.
Lamps
"Sadly, these farms are being set up in residential areas where innocent people live and these criminals are putting everyone else’s lives at risk."
He went on: "Cannabis farms are a serious fire risk in that the electricity meters are almost always tampered with to steal electricity, hot lamps will have been rigged up to simulate ideal growing conditions, and a watering system will also be in place, often dangerous close to electricity.
"These criminals care little about the people their crude handiwork may harm.
"Tell-tale signs such as covered up windows, a pungent smell, suspicious comings and goings, all point towards a cannabis farm operating where you live and my message to you is: don’t leave reporting it until it is too late. You and your family could be sleeping next door to one of these drugs factories when they go up in flames and the consequences do not bear thinking about.”
Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service Station Manager Craig Whitfield said: "Cannabis farms and locations where cannabis is grown are dangerous. They pose a great risk to members of the public and firefighters alike.
"Any tampering with the electrical supply or wiring installation in a property can cause a fire, which also poses a risk to those who live nearby. Bypassing the electricity can also cause metal in a building to become ‘live’ therefore raising the risks of electrocution and posing extra dangers to the emergency services called to the site and others.”
To report a cannabis farm where you live call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
