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Two die in flats inferno
TWO people have died and two others were injured in a fire at a three-storey block of flats in Norton.
Residents leapt from apartment windows and climbed down drainpipes to escape the inferno which destroyed the second and third floors of Buckrose Court on Commercial Street early on Saturday morning.
Police are now investigating the cause of the fire which claimed the lives of the pair, said by locals to be a man and a woman in their late teens, and left two men in their early 20s needing treatment for smoke inhalation and burns.
"I woke up with the sound of the smoke alarm and people shouting and screaming," said Andrew Colgan, who immediately fled his top floor flat with his eight-year-old son. "It just went up in a split second. By the time I got downstairs fire and smoke was everywhere. The windows were shattering all over the place."
He added: "There was a lad lying on the floor covered in blood from where he had jumped out of the window. I think his jaw was broken."
Leoni Lenaghn, 21, and her boyfriend Chris Beresford were asleep when their smoke alarm went off at about 2.30am. Leoni said: "There was smoke coming through the living room door so we jumped through the window. You just don't expect it. It was so scary."
Steve Kinsella, landlord of The Railway Tavern directly opposite the apartment block, opened his door to residents, the police and fire brigade when he saw a woman in the middle of the road shouting for help.
He said: "I have never seen anything like it in my life. When I heard shouting I thought it was people coming home from town but it is sad, really really sad."
Police officers and firefighters used the pub as a makeshift headquarters while they interviewed the shocked residents.
"When people realised the severity of it, the pub went quiet. It seemed like the news had gone round that it was very serious and very sad," he added.
Police have now closed off parts of Commercial Street while an investigation, expected to last most of the day, is carried out. The bodies, which are in the same apartment, will be removed by the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service once a structural engineer has ensured the apartment block is safe.
Cllr Di Keal, who lives on a neighbouring street, said: "As a Norton town councillor and chairman of Ryedale District Council and a resident of the town I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those who have tragically lost their lives in this dreadful incident overnight in Norton.
"Obviously a full investigation into the circumstances will be taking place, but our first thoughts must go to the families affected by this incident and our sincere condolences go out to them at this very distressing time."
Husband Howard Keal, also a district councillor, added: "I'm a desperately saddened that two young lives have been cut short in this way at a time when they had their whole futures ahead of them."
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Weather for Whitby
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
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