A FAMILY were forced to flee their home after arsonists struck.

A fire was started in an empty house and smoke spread into a property four doors away at Hillside Avenue, Grove Hill, Middlesbrough.

Steve Waggott, a watch manager with Cleveland Fire Brigade in Middlesbrough, said: "There was quite a bit of smoke in their property, which must have been fairly uncomfortable. They had to be taken outside into the fresh air."

Crews tackling the fire, on Thursday night, used the hydraulic platform based at Stockton - as the Middlesbrough platform was undergoing essential maintenance work. The Stockton platform is to be taken out of service.

Firefighters put a hole through the roof of the house to tackle the fire.

Mr Waggott said: "It is a row of terraced houses, the majority of which are disused and boarded-up, but the end terrace one is occupied.

"These places have been well secured with steel shutters, but somehow boards have been removed from the back of the property by youths who have gone in and started a fire on a mattress, on the first-floor.

"The fire has spread to the bathroom and to a couple of bedrooms and got into the communal loft,'' he added.

"Whenever a fire gets into a loft space, it becomes complicated because there is difficulty of access, a difficulty of finding where the fire is."