TWO teenage girls are believed to have carried out an arson attack at a Corsham school that left a cleaner needing hospital treatment.

Police say the fire was deliberately started in a bin in the girls' toilets at Corsham Comprehensive School on Monday.

The blaze was spotted by cleaner Lorraine Taylor before it could spread. Yesterday she was praised for her quick action by headteacher Martin Williams.

Mrs Taylor, 42, of Rudloe, had just started her cleaning round on Monday afternoon.

The girls' toilets in the humanities block were first on the round but when Mrs Taylor opened the door she was hit by an acrid smell and thick smoke filled the corridor. She immediately hit the nearest alarm to alert staff.

"I was worried in case there was a child in there," said Mrs Taylor, who is a former pupil of the school.

"It was a nasty thing to come across. I knew there was no-one about so as long as the staff and kids were okay that was the main thing."

Mrs Taylor, who is also a lunchtime supervisor at the school, was taken to Chippenham Community Hospital and then transferred to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, where she received treatment for smoke inhalation.

"It was a bit of a shock and I breathed in a bit of smoke but luckily it was nothing to worry about and the hospital sent me home," she said.

Mr Williams praised Mrs Taylor for acting as quickly as she did.

"The whole thing could have been much worse and we are thankful no-one was in school, and also thankful it has not disrupted anything," he said.

More than 20 heads of curriculum and heads of year were in a meeting with Mr Williams when the fire alarm went off.

Staff phoned the fire brigade and within minutes everyone had been evacuated from the building and had assembled on the field in front of the school.

The call was logged at 3.30pm and two fire crews from Corsham and one from Chippenham quickly put out the fire.

The cost of damage to the toilet block is estimated at several hundred pounds.

Although most of the damage was caused by smoke, the toilet cistern had also been ripped from the wall.

PC Andy Guy, of Corsham police, is investigating the case. He said the fire could well have taken hold quickly had Mrs Taylor not seen the smoke.

"The toilets were a bit of a mess," he said. "Fortunately the fire was caught very, very quickly. If the bin had smouldered for some time it could have been much, much worse so thankfully there was someone nearby."

Mrs Taylor has been given a couple of days leave to recover from her ordeal and her 15-year-old daughter Kirsty, a pupil at the school, is making sure she is taking things easy.

Kirsty said: "Nobody really knew anything about it. It's quite lucky it didn't get out of hand and none of the students were there."

Police want to talk to two girls who were caught on one of the school's CCTV cameras in the corridor leading to the toilets.

School was open as usual the following day and only the fire-hit toilets were out of bounds.

"Everything was running as usual," said Mr Williams. "We still welcomed primary school pupils during the day and their parents in the evening to show them around the school."

Fleur Van Heiyningen, 18, who works at Theodora's florists in High Street, said people had been talking about the fire in the shops in town.

"I was quite shocked," she said. "Nothing like that happened when I was at school there."