Crews from Shirebrook Fire Station were called to attend an incident in the town on Monday, June 20.
They discovered a group of school leavers had built a fire – on which they were burning their old books.
In a Facebook post, a crew spokesman said: “We know how exciting it is to finally leave school and move on to the next stage in your life, but we ask you to please find alternative methods of disposing of your unwanted work books.
“Names have been passed to our colleagues at Shirebrook police who will be reaching out to those involved.
“Immediately after this we were called to a serious house fire. Incidents like this can have huge consequences – please think next time.”