THE head teacher at a York secondary school was taken to hospital with smoke inhalation after an arson attack.

Millthorpe School head teacher Tony Wooton was one of three members of staff left needing hospital treatment after a fire was started deliberately in a paper towel holder in the boys' toilets of the school's B block.

All of the school's 1,012 pupils were evacuated from the building and Mr Wooton, teaching assistant Dave Counter and caretaker Andy Henson went in to tackle the blaze with fire extinguishers at about 3pm yesterday.

They managed to put out the fire, but in the process inhaled some of the thick black toxic smoke coming off the burning plastic.

By the time four fire engines had arrived on the scene, the fire was out and all three men were taken to York Hospital to get checked out.

Station Officer Jane Proud, of York fire brigade, said things could have been much worse.

"The school followed the correct evacuation procedure but these men put themselves at risk putting out the blaze," she said.

"The problem is with any fire, but particularly plastic fires, that there is heavy black smoke involved which could do irreparable harm to the lungs and it only takes a few mouthfuls to do real damage.

"We believe the cause was deliberate and will be working very closely with the school in the coming days to find out exactly what happened."

The towel holder was burned-out and the toilets were badly smoke-damaged in the fire.

Smoke also spread to the rest of the school buildings and firefighters used ventilating machinery to clear the air before anyone was allowed back in.

The evacuation went on after the end of the school day at 3.30pm.

Youngsters were not released from school until around 3.45pm as a result.

Chris Downes, the school's deputy head teacher, has taught at the school for 29 years.

He said there had only ever been one other fire at the school and that was started in the same toilets two years ago.

Mr Downes said at this stage a copycat incident could not be ruled out.

He said: "We will be looking in to this immediately and the first step will be to find out the names of any pupils who have been allowed out of lessons.

"There were no members of staff taken to hospital in the case two years ago. I can't remember exactly what happened to the boy who was the culprit, but he was dealt with appropriately. It could be a copycat incident, I don't know at this stage."

All three men were discharged from York Hospital last night.

Updated: 11:32 Friday, March 17, 2006