FIRE investigators are to reinterview staff at Bolton's Moat House Hotel in connection with a massive blaze which killed two pensioners.

The interviews are being undertaken with fire chiefs considering taking legal action against the hotel which was set on fire by an arsonist 18 months ago.

William Robertson, aged 75, and his 81-year-old wife, Margaret, died from smoke inhalation as they were attempting to flee the blaze along a third floor corridor outside their bedroom.

Detectives are still hunting the arsonist who set fire to mattresses propped up in a corridor.

A police reward for information leading to an arrest of the arsonist is still on offer.

Fire officers are attempting to establish whether the mattresses breached the 128-bedroom hotel's fire safety certificate as flammable material is not intended to be left on an emergency exit route.

Fire safety chief Michael Broszko said the hotel's owners could be fined if the brigade decides to proceed with court action.

The fire investigators will be talking in-depth to the employees who were working at the time of the blaze. It follows an inquest last month into the deaths of the two pensioners which concluded that they were unlawfully killed.

Fire took hold on the third floor of the 128-bedroom hotel in Higher Bridge Street.

Mr Broszko said: "At this point nothing has been decided and the investigation is continuing."