Fire destroys fourth floor of hotel in Darlington, England

Guests at a hotel in Northern England were evacuated in the early hours of this morning as a fire broke out, destroying the fourth floor and the roof. The upper floor of the King's Head Hotel in Darlington, County Durham was, at the height of the fire, engulfed by flames resulting in a large plume of smoke rising above the town.

Sixty-three guests were evacuated from the building whilst two where rescued by the fire service but it is not thought that anyone was injured.

Around sixty firefighters were involved in trying to bring the fire under control. Due to the danger of parts of the building collapsing they weren't able to fight the fire from within the hotel and instead broke holes in the roof and used a turntable ladder.

Several roads surrounding the hotel were closed and the adjacent Cornmill shopping centre was for a time threatened by the blaze.

Chief Inspector Paul Unsworth, of Durham Police praised the actions of the hotel staff: "I'd like to congratulate the hotel staff - they did a marvellous job during the night. There were no casualties and they managed to account for everyone in the hotel."

A joint investigation between the local police and fire services has been launched but the cause of the fire is not expected to be known for several weeks.