AN ART room at All Saints' School, York, was left severely damaged after a fire which is thought to have been started by a faulty extractor fan.

Firefighters were called to the school just before 8pm last night after a passer-by noticed flames coming from the upper site of the school on Mill Mount.

Station Officer Mal Austwick, from York, said the fire was mainly in a store cupboard but also went into the roof of the building.

He said: "We believe it was down to the extractor fan where there was a fault.

"We removed quite a few of the roof tiles to make sure it was not going to catch fire.

"The room has been severely damaged by fire and it is virtually burnt-out."

No one was hurt in the fire which took about 30 minutes to extinguish.

Two crews from York and a crew from Acomb attended.

Updated: 11:09 Wednesday, August 06, 2003