SIX people were evacuated from smoke-filled flats when a suspicious fire broke out in Blackburn.

The blaze started at the entrance door to the block on King Street at 4.40am on Saturday, blocking the only way out of the building.

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One resident, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s terrifying. It’s like someone wanted to kill us all.

“There’s only one way in and one way out of this building and they set fire to it.

“If it wasn’t for the fire brigade, none of us would be here now.”

Fire crews from Blackburn and Hyndburn spent around two hours putting out the fire and waking people up to get them to safety.

Daniel Marsh, who lives in the property with his partner, said: “We only moved in last Friday so this isn’t a very good start.

“All of the stuff we’ve got for our new flat just stinks of smoke. It’s awful.”

The entrance to the flats is a doorway at the back of D Furniture store in King Street and it was there that the fire was started.

Mr Marsh recounted the moment he realised his home had gone up in flames.

He said: “It was just really scary. We didn’t know anything about the fire because we were asleep in bed but the firemen broke the door in and told us to get out. The smoke was everywhere and they made us walk down and out the door where the fire started because there’s no other way to get out of the building.

“Luckily, our flat isn’t too bad but other people are worse off.

“The fire started in the entry way.

“There’s always people sleeping rough there so I don’t know if one of them lit a fire or dropped a cigarette or something but we were all very lucky to get out alive.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation but fire officials believe it was started deliberately.

Crew manager Gary Thorpe said: “We arrived to see smoke billowing from the building.

“It was a moderate fire but luckily no homes were damaged and everyone is safe.

“The only damage is smoke damage in the entry way where the fire is thought to have started.”