QUICK-THINKING hotel staff raised the alarm and searched for squatters after a small fire broke out in a disused building on the corner of St Denys Road and Walmgate in York.

Janeen Downie, 25, assistant manager of the St Denys Hotel and Chrissie Bonner, 22, a general assistant, saw smoke billowing from the two-storey property last night at about 7pm.

Janeen said: "The building was being surveyed yesterday. The surveyors told us there were three squatters living in there and we actually saw them. They seem to be a girl and a boy who were about 14 or 15, and an older, smartly dressed man.

"When we saw the smoke, we assumed they were still in there. I phoned the fire brigade on my mobile and then we went into the ground floor of the building and shouted up to see if anybody was trapped. We got out when we heard the sirens coming."

Assistant divisional fire officer Phil Wade said: "Two officers using breathing apparatus were sent in to search for people in the building after we were told by passers-by that somebody could be in there. We didn't find anybody and soon had the fire extinguished."

One of the firefighters said he saw blankets underneath one of the windows.

Two appliances, one turntable ladder and a hose reel were used in the incident. No one was hurt.

Janeen Downie and Chrissie Bonner who Raised alarm and searched the building

Picture: David Harrison