FIREFIGHTERS have warned that lives are being endangered after an arson attack at a school.

The blaze at Spennymoor Comprehensive School on Monday night started in a lavatory block. According to police it was caused by a lavatory roll holder being set alight.

Flames spread to the rest of the block and toxic fumes and smoke billowed into a corridor and nearby rooms, covering them in a layer of soot.

As Durham County Council workers started an expensive clean-up operation yesterday, police were preparing to question pupils and staff about the £7,000 blaze.

Station Officer David Turnbull, of County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, said that 22 firefighters had been called to the scene with three fire engines, two Land Rovers and a special unit.

He said: "The fire brigade does not need this sort of malicious act to disrupt normal working operations. We are here to provide fire safety operational cover for those people that really need our services.

"A malicious act like this is really, really serious. If the perpetrators are caught, the penalties are severe.

"There could still have been people in the premises that might have been trapped.

"It is not the fire that kills people, it is the smoke that is the killer. It could have leaked out and put every single person to sleep."

He said County Durham had one of the highest rates of malicious fire calls in the country and the tenth highest rate of deaths in accidental fires.

A school spokesman said: "One toilet cubicle has completely gone, and is to be replaced. Obviously, the county council will have to send out professional cleaners."

Detective Sergeant Gordon Scott, of Newton Aycliffe CID, said: "Even though this is a minor incident, it could have been very serious, and so we are very interested to find out who is responsible."

In January, Hardwick Primary School, in Sedgefield, was wrecked by a suspected arson attack, when fire ripped through six classrooms. Its 170 pupils cannot move back until May.

Det Sgt Scott said that anyone with information about the latest arson attack should contact police on (01325) 314401.