THREE people were rescued after being trapped upstairs by a fire at a town centre pub early today.

Ladders were put up to the windows by firefighters who rescued landlord Harry Crusick, Philip Wrench and Karen Hannah from the Park View pub, opposite Turf Moor, in Brunshaw Road, Burnley.

They were trapped by flames and thick black smoke from a fire which began at the bottom of the stairs.

An Alsatian dog was also rescued.

Miss Hannah was taken to hospital for a precautionary check up. Firefighters said the people were in their bedrooms when they smelled smoke and got up to find the stairway on fire and full of thick choking smoke.

Station officer Dave Jackson said: "It is lucky they smelled the smoke at an early stage. There was no smoke detector."

The fire burnt through the telephone wires and the alarm was raised by Mr Crusick using his mobile phone.

Mr Jackson said: "When we arrived about 1.30am there was a fire on the ground floor and Mr Crusick at a first floor window. He and the others couldn't get downstairs because of the smoke. We put ladders up and got them out."

He said the fire could not have been in a worse position starting, possibly due to the careless disposal of smoking materials, in a cardboard box containing till rolls and plastic optics at the bottom of the stairs.

It then spread to magazines and video tapes and to the stairs carpets.

Fire damage was confined to the stairs area with smoke damage to six upstairs rooms.