A senior fire officer in Derry has said members of his crew narrowly escaped death when responding to an arson attack in the Waterside area early yesterday. A gas cylinder exploded and demolished a shed minutes before the brigade arrived in the loyalist Rossdowney Road. It is understood the cylinder was one of 12 stolen in the city on Tuesday. Fire-fighters fear that arsonists placed the cylinder in the shed before they set fire to the building. Fire officer Willie Lynch said his crew were on their way to the place when the cylinder exploded.