FIREFIGHTERS last night rescued two people from a blazing building.

The fire took hold at a derelict house in Turnbull Street, Hartlepool, just before 6pm.

When officers arrived at the house they found flames pouring out of the ground floor windows and two people, a man and a woman, unconscious upstairs.

They took the casualties outside and administered oxygen, with the help of a doctor who happened to be passing, before they were taken, still unconscious, to hospital.

Station Officer Steve Harll said the pair would certainly have died had it not been for the actions of firefighters.

Police were last night trying to establish the cause of the fire and why the pair, who have not been identified, were in the building.