An island holiday turned to terror for two families when fire broke out in a multi-storey hotel.

Smoke spread to the top floor of the 11-storey Thomson hotel, in Gran Canaria, as a large cupboard blazed five floors below.

Publican Michael Roper and his friend Gary Noble frantically smashed glass fronted alarms expecting them to sound the alert.

But despite hitting them with fire extinguishers, no alarm sounded.

Mr Roper, 43, landlord of the Dog and Gun, at Leeming Wells, Oxenhope, said: "I used my fist at first to try and smash the alarm and then a fire extinguisher -- but nothing happened."

He had been woken by Mr Noble, 42, a partner in Cyprus Garage, in Thackley, in the early hours of Sunday.

"I had a T-shirt around my mouth so I could breath -- the smoke was really bad," said Mr Noble, who had been roused by his wife, Sarah, 40.

She had heard shouts of "fire, fire" and had looked out of the balcony of the Taurito Princess hotel to see smoke coming from the lift and stair area.

She said: "When I looked into the corridor it was full of smoke. I just grabbed the kids -- I couldn't think of anything else."

She and her son Ryan, eight, and Zoe, 20 months, fled down the nearby fire escape with Kathryn Roper, 50, and her 12-year-old daughter Jodie.

Both Mr Noble and Mr Roper then hammered on the room doors along the corridor to rouse other guests before dashing upstairs to wake people on the top floor.

Mr Roper said: "Gary and I then went along the corridor banging on the other doors. When people came out they began shouting and screaming as we helped them to the fire escape.

"The smoke was getting thicker and we went up to the 11th floor. I tried breaking the alarm again and nothing worked."

He said he believed the fire was discovered in a linen cupboard by children and two male guests put it out with fire extinguishers.

"This was a very dangerous situation. It was a fierce fire and if it hadn't been for us four taking control, Thomson could be well in the mire now," he added.

Mr Roper said people were so distressed that later that morning there was a near riot situation because there had been no proper alarm, no official evacuation, no head-count and no room check.

But a Thomson spokesman said the alarm was a two-stage system and had worked correctly.

The system enabled a member of staff, once alerted to the fire, to investigate and then if necessary, to set off the alarm throughout the hotel. He said on this occasion the alert was flashed on a panel in reception and a member of staff had investigated and tackled the blaze with the help of two guests.

The blaze had broken out in a cupboard on the sixth floor where mattresses were stored.

The Thomson spokesman said: "Our health and safety department are happy the system worked. Medical attention had been offered but nobody accepted it and a letter was sent to all guests explaining the alarm system."