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Fire at family’s home may have been deliberate

by Damon Wilkinson
13/ 5/2008

A FIRE at the home of a family of six may have been started deliberately, according to police.

Firemen dramatically rescued two women from the bedroom window of the house in Arundel Street, Deeplish, in the early hours of Friday.

Four other members of the family were led to safety through the smoke-logged home by firefighters wearing breathing apparatus.

Police are treating the blaze as suspicious and a joint investigation with the fire service is underway.

Fire crews were called out to the semi-detached property at about 3.30am after reports that a fire had broken out in the kitchen.

A 40-year-old man, a 10-year-old boy, two women aged 34 and 27, and two girls, aged 16 and 14, were taken to Rochdale Infirmary where they were treated for smoke inhalation and discharged.

Some 15 firefighters from Rochdale and Heywood spent three hours battling the blaze. They were initially forced to carry their equipment 200 yards to the scene as their fire engines couldn’t gain access to the street because of parked cars. The home is severely smoke damaged.

A spokesman for the fire service said: "On arrival crews found the house was heavily smoke-logged and several persons required rescue from an upstairs window.Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the house and were able to lead four people to safety while their colleagues rescued two further women from an upstairs window by ladder.The fire was located in the kitchen. This incident could have been much, much worse as, although a smoke alarm was fitted, it had no battery."

Anyone with information is asked to call Rochdale CID on 0161 856 4644 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.