FIREFIGHTERS rescued seven residents trapped in a York block of flats after a blaze was deliberately started in the stairwell.

Four men and three women were helped through first and second-floor windows and down three firefighters' ladders at the council flats in Margaret Street, off Walmgate, yesterday afternoon.

Residents told how they could not escape from their homes until help arrived because of thick black smoke in the stairwell - where firefighters believe that a carpet left hanging on a banister was deliberately set alight.

Kerry Winn, huddled in a duvet outside the flats, said she had been lying in bed feeling sick when the fire broke out. She escaped down a ladder.

Another resident, Philip Mountain, 28, said he stopped fumes getting in by laying towels against the bottom of his door. "The smoke was belching through," he said.

He called the fire brigade, and help arrived within minutes. He suggested there should be a fire escape in addition to the main staircase.

However, City of York Council said the building conformed to all the necessary regulations.

A spokesman said such staircases were meant to be "sterile" areas without inflammable materials. "We will be investigating what happened here."

Station officer Mal Austwick praised residents for staying in their flats and keeping their doors closed until help arrived.

He said such a fire could have been life-threatening had it happened at night when people were asleep and had additional materials been around which could have caught fire.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus put out the fire using a hose reel, he added.

An ambulance was called to the scene, but everyone escaped without needing treatment for any ill-effects from the smoke.

A police spokesman said inquiries were still ongoing, and no arrests had been made.

Updated: 10:36 Saturday, June 22, 2002