A FIRE damaged a York pizza restaurant today forcing tenants in flats above to flee to safety.

The Monk Bar end of historic Goodramgate was cordoned off as more than 20 firefighters fought to control the blaze at the Little Italy restaurant, just yards from Monk Bar.

Tenants in flats above were evacuated as fire crews worked to contain the blaze.

The alarm was raised just before 10am by Tom and Anne Porter, who run the Monk Bar Newsagency, next door to the restaurant.

No one was hurt and the cause of the fire was being investigated. Fire chiefs say it started when some wooden logs on top of the pizza oven caught fire.

Mrs Porter, who said the owners had recently spent thousands of pounds renovating the restaurant, was alerted to the fire by a customer.

She said: "I went to have a look and saw flames coming up from the oven.

"I shouted to my husband, who called the fire brigade."

She then ran to alert people living in flats upstairs.

"I rang all the bells, until somebody answered. I shouted: 'The restaurant's on fire, get everybody out'."

The fire caused severe fire damage to a corner of the restaurant and smoke damage to the pizzeria and flats above.

Fire crews had to smash open the front door of the restaurant to tackle the flames.

They used thermal-imaging equipment to make sure fire was not latent in the timbers of the old building and the flats above.

Station Officer Jez Rushworth, of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "It was a severe fire. It burned through the floor of the ceiling directly above.

"The smoke has permeated through next door and we were concerned about the smoke spreading to adjacent property.

"We sent in crews with thermal-imaging equipment to make sure the fire was hemmed in on all sides."

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