Arson investigation after family is forced to flee blaze

The couple climbed out of a first-floor window with their baby son after waking to find the bedroom of their Darlington home filled with smoke.

They were helped out on to the street by neighbours in Westlands Road.

The fire had started in a lavatory outbuilding, before the smoke had spread to the first floor of the house.

The blaze coincided with a dozen vandal attacks in surrounding streets, in which vehicles' windows were smashed, said police.

They are examining a possible link between the fire, which started in the early hours of yesterday, and the wave of criminal damage caused to cars in the Denes and Pierremont areas of the town.

Detective Sergeant Alec Francis said: "This is being investigated as a suspicious fire and we are appealing for witnesses.

"Officers were attending the fire and there were several further reports of criminal damage in and around the area, so we were very busy. Then this morning, when people were waking up, there were further crimes being reported when people looked at their cars.

"At the moment we are not dismissing links between the fire and the damages."

The fire, tackled by firefighters using breathing apparatus, left the first floor of the house severely smoke damaged.

Station officer Dave Turnbull, of County Durham Fire and Rescue Brigade, said the family were already out of the house by the time firefighters arrived. They had been alerted to the fire at about 2.50am.

He said: "The fire had the potential to be very serious, but the people involved did everything right.

"They shut the bedroom door and placed sheets across the bottom of it to stop the smoke coming through.

"The family then clambered out of the window and on to a bay window roof, before being helped to the ground."

The three people involved were shocked, but unhurt.

Witnesses to the fire or any of the criminal damages incidents, is asked to contact police on (01325) 467681 or Crimestoppers on (0800) 555111.