POLICE are treating as suspicious the cause of a fire which destroyed the living room of a house.

The blaze ripped through the end-of-terrace house in Henderson Street, Darlington, early on Saturday morning.

Two fire engines from Darlington and a third from Newton Aycliffe attended the blaze at just after 2am.

Station Officer Colin Bage said: "When the crews turned up, flames were issuing from the front bay window and the transom above the door."

A woman and her two children live in the house, and firefighters thought they were trapped inside, but it later emerged that they were staying with friends or relatives.

It took the crews about ten minutes to put out the fire, and six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were inside for a further 25 minutes to ventilate the property.

Mr Bage said: "The front room of the house was totally destroyed, everything was burned, and there was significant smoke damage to the rest of the house."

Further investigations are being undertaken by the fire brigade and police scenes-of-crime officers to establish the exact cause of the blaze, which Mr Bage called "a suspicious fire".

In a separate incident, fire crews from Darlington and Newton Aycliffe were called to a house in Eldon Street, off North Road, Darlington, at 4pm.

The first-floor front room was severely damaged by the blaze, but nobody was injured.