Started fire beside a US city prayer recital (6)
I believe the answer is:
litany
'prayer recital' is the definition.
'litany' can be an answer for 'recital' (I have seen 'Tedious recital' mean 'litany' so perhaps 'recital' could also mean 'litany'). I am not sure about the 'prayer' bit.
'started fire beside a us city' is the wordplay.
'started fire' becomes 'lita' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'beside' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'a us city' becomes 'NY' (New York).
'lita'+'ny'='LITANY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for litany that I've seen before include "Catalogue" , "Succession of requests" , "religious text" , "Long list (of requests or complaints)" , "Repetitive series" .)