FIREFIGHTERS searched a blazing house for a family they believed was trapped there yesterday morning, but found it empty.

A crew from Middlesbrough fire station arrived at the house in Parliament Road, in the town, to discover the living room well alight.

After being told by neighbours that a family of four lived there, they risked their safety to enter the house, wearing breathing apparatus.

Station Officer Lol McIlroy said: "We had to fight the fire as if it was a full emergency. It was a terraced house, but luckily, it had been discovered in the early stages, so didn't spread. A passer-by had attempted to get in but it was a bit beyond that stage."

SO McIlroy said the fire was being treated as suspicious. "It's being investigated at the moment," he said.

The incident is the latest in a string of suspicious fires over the past few weeks.

As reported in Tuesday's edition of The Northern Echo, there were five arson attacks in the Middlesbrough area last week.