A COUPLE and their little girl were taken to hospital this morning after a suspected arson attack inside a block of flats in Southampton.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus had to force their way in to six homes around 4.30am to rescue eight people who they led to safety.

Among them were a couple and a little girl aged three who had to be treated for smoke inhalation.

The blaze broke out on the stairwell of a block of flats in Kingsland Place, St Mary's after a TV was left on the floor and set on fire.

It caused the entire stairwell in the two-floor block to become heavily smokelogged and fire crews from St Mary's station took the decision to evacuate.

Two pumps had responded to the 999 call and later called in for an extra crew as they rescued the residents who were woken in their beds and told to leave quickly.

Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus, using two jets, two high pressure hose reels were used and positive pressure ventilation fan was also used to clear the smoke.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service also sent an emergency support vehicle to the scene to help those not allowed back into their homes. This morning  the scene cordoned off by police.

They included 43-year-old Karen Snook who lives on the first floor of the block with partner Des Wheatley.

She said: "I woke to the sound of the fire alarm about 4.30am - I just knew straight away that's what the noise was. The smoke alarms inside our flat were going off as well.

"We've had a couple of scares here before but never an actual fire and it was frightening to see all that black smoke.

"I phoned the fire brigade while Des ran out with a bucket of water to try and put it out.

"The firefighters were here really quickly, I think that's because the fire was in the hallway and nobody could get out, we were trapped."

Karen, who has been outside her home ever since while police investigated the scene, added: "They came into the flat and told us to get out. They were spraying water as we walked down. I could see despite the smoke but there was water everywhere on the stairs so they were guiding us."

Des, 44, who had to miss a day at work fitting air conditioning units, added: "I woke to the sound of the smoke alarm and went outside into the stairwell and saw the TV on fire - it was just a small flame at first but by the time I had gone back to get water it had really kicked off. It got quite bad and it was mainly heavy smoke.

"My first thought was to try and put out the fire - we were all inside but there was a baby upstairs too."

An investigation has been launched into the fire which is understood to have been started deliberately.

Incident commander, watch manager Stu Vince, said: "We were met with a potential life threatening situation, however due to our training and professionalism we dealt with the incident and were able to get everyone out of the building safely.”