THREE children died in a blazing Blackpool home early on Thursday morning.

The boys aged 3, 5 and 7 from a family of nine were pulled from the blaze at Boothroyden in North Shore by firefighters at just after 4.30am, but were dead on arrival at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Ten people were reported to be trapped in the building as fifteen firefighters tackled the blaze at the end terrace home just behind the resort's Hilton Hotel.

A fire service spokesman said the ground floor of the house was already well alight when crews arrived.

Seven children, their parents and grandmother were taken out of the building.

Peter Holland, chief fire officer for Lancashire, said they were called to the scene at 4.30am and found flames coming out of the window of the ground floor.

He said that within minutes the fire had spread to the bedrooms upstairs.

"Three people were rescued by neighbours who did an absolutely brilliant job and saved their lives," he said.

"Three further people managed to get out of the house. Our crews tackled the fire inside and found upstairs three young children. They were found in a bedroom and were brought outside but unfortunately they were dead."

Mr Holland said preliminary investigations showed that the fire started in the lounge downstairs in some furniture.

He said: "It spread very rapidly and it was an extremely fierce fire.

"We do not think that there was a smoke alarm in the house. If there had been it could have saved more lives."