A MOTHER and her daughter died after fire swept through their home in York early today.

The three-year-old girl died on the way to hospital, despite attempts to revive her.

A man was also seriously ill in Pinterfields Hospital, Wakefield, following the blaze.

An ambulance spokeswoman said it was believed he severed an artery when he jumped from a first-floor window of the house to escape the inferno.

Another man was being treated at York Hospital for smoke inhalation.

Three neighbours, including a four-week-old baby, also suffered the effects of smoke. They were advised and treated by paramedics.

Five fire appliances - two from Acomb, two from York and one from Selby - were called to the house in Kingsway West, Acomb, at 2.57am when a next-door neighbour raised the alarm.

They arrived within minutes and fought for an hour to bring the blaze in the mid-terraced house under control.

Five ambulance crews attended, but the woman, who was aged about 30, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Paramedic Dave Butterfield said: "The crews worked exceptionally well and hard under quite harrowing conditions."

Trevor Lund, assistant divisional officer for North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, said they had unconfirmed reports of a large number of candles in the lounge area just before the fire started.

He also said that a smoke detector was found among the debris in the council-owned property, but it had no power source.

He advised people: "Make sure you check the batteries in your smoke detectors once a week. Change them annually."

The house, which was gutted, was sealed off by police, but they do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances to the blaze.

The woman, who was known to neighbours as Ruby, is believed to have another daughter, aged about nine, who was not at the house when the fire occurred. The family, along with the two men who were at the house, belonged to the York "peace collective".

Denis Pryce, a member of the collective, said Ruby had joined squatters at the so-called Rainbow Peace Hotel in the White Swan Hotel, in Piccadilly, earlier this year. She had not moved with them to The Gimcrack pub, at Fulford, but visited regularly.

"We are going to miss her a lot," he said. "She was a big part of the collective. It is really sad."

This is the second tragic blow to the group in recent months. At the end of May one of its members, Lara Saunders, died after falling from a window, a day after the group were evicted from the Rainbow Peace Hotel.

Neighbours in Kingsway West spoke of their terror as they watched the inferno spread through the house, powerless to answer cries for help.

Brian Henry, who lives next door to the house, said he was woken at 2.55am by the sound of breaking glass and assumed the sound was cars being broken into.

But within seconds a man in his late thirties with a bleeding arm knocked at his door, and he could see flames billowing from the adjoining building, so he rang the fire brigade.

He said he had not seen the man before, but believed he was living in the blaze-hit house.

Louise Teale said she was woken at 3am by the sound of popping glass.

"There was no way they could have survived," she said.

"It was awful to watch. It makes you feel sick to know that you were looking at the house and couldn't do anything. We are all devastated."

Another neighbour, Sandra Waddington, said: "They hadn't lived there long, but I always chatted to her.

"I spoke to her last night outside my house. She was really nice, a really polite woman."

She said the family had two dogs which were outside at the time of the fire.

Updated: 12:56 Saturday, August 02, 2003