Two escape death in ‘suspicious’ fire

Two men escaped death today after being rescued from a fire in the North which police are treating as suspicious.

The men, members of the Chinese community, had been trapped on the first floor of a block of flats in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

But two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers broke into the Galgorm Road building using a fire extinguisher and, after bringing a ladder from the nearby police station, managed to get the men to safety.

The scene of the blaze has been sealed off to allow further examinations, an RUC spokesman confirmed.

Praising the swift action of the officers, he added: ‘‘This was a very serious fire which could have resulted in the death or injury of these two men.’’