A one-year-old child was among 13 people rescued from a fire at a block of flats in Derry today.
The fire broke out at a property in the Carnhill area just before 6.30am.
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service area commander Trevor Ferguson said it appeared the fire "was started deliberately."
A number of carpets in the communal hallway of the two-storey building are believed to have been set alight.
"Fire crews were faced with a very difficult and potentially very tragic set of circumstances. There was a developing fire in the communal stairwell," Mr Fergus on added.
They used ladders to rescue a family including the one-year-old child and another man from flats on the first floor. Five others were rescued using the internal stairwell by crews wearing breathing apparatus.
A further four occupants managed to escape the burning building before the fire service arrived.
The fire was extinguished after about an hour but Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and NIFRS investigators are still at the scene.
A spokeswoman for the PSNI appealed for anyone with information to contact officers at Strand Road in the city.
PA