A MOTHER and daughter whose business was devastated following an alleged arson attack, have vowed to get it up and running as soon as possible.

Urban Spa Retreat, owned by Eleanor Olivier and her daughter Robyn, was one of the businesses whose premises were destroyed by a fire which swept through Finkle Street and Rosemary Lane at the weekend.

Firefighters were alerted to the fire at 5.15am on Saturday, June 6. By 5.45am there were ten pumps fighting the blaze from stations across North Yorkshire and the North-East and two aerial ladder platforms called in from Cleveland and Harrogate.

Robyn said they were alerted to the fire by the burglar alarm operators, who presumed there was an intruder when the alarm was triggered. She said: “We came to the scene as quickly as possible. It was a terrible sight to see 20ft flames engulfing the salon.”

Eleanor had spent nearly 23 years building up the business and employs a team of eight therapists and hair stylists.

She said: “It is heartbreaking to see everything that has been built up over 23 years reduced to ashes in just a few hours.”

Both of the women say they have been taken aback with the support on social media, with thousands of messages of support and help offered on Facebook. They say the local community also rallied around, with the Unicorn Inn and the Black Lion pubs opening their doors to provide tea and coffee during the fire-fighting operation and a local butchers, Hamiltons, handing out pies to fire-fighters tackling the blaze.

Eleanor said they will be back in business as soon as they have found suitable temporary premises and said they would keep everyone updated on their Facebook page.

Michael Dale, temporary station manager for Richmondshire, for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, said there were a number of factors which led to the fire causing so much damage to the town centre.

They were alerted by the driver of a van delivering items to Tasty Macs sandwich shop, who discovered the store full of smoke at 5.15am.

“By the time we got there to deal with the fire at the back of the building, the crew looked up and saw it was issuing from the loft space," said Mr Dale.

“It had spread to the roof space early on. You can’t put too many people inside a building because you have items dropping down, so we were trying to fight it externally.

“Once it had got into the roof space the roof structure started to burn through and the winds did play a contributing factor because it was very windy, so it did make this operation a bit more difficult.”

* A man has been charged with arson and is due to appear at Teesside Crown Court later this month.