Nine floors of the building in Irvine were destroyed in the fire, which broke out about 1245 on Friday.

BBC Scotland's David Henderson was at the scene

A turntable ladder was used to reach four adults and a 15-month-old child who were attended by ambulance crew and declared safe and well.

Strathclyde Assistant Firemaster Phil Robinson said temperatures in the council-owned tower block would have reached 800 degrees centigrade.

One witness said the building "went up like a match". At its height, more than 60 firefighters were involved and the flames took about two hours to bring under control.

Mr Robinson said: "It was a very difficult operation. The firefighters worked under very arduous conditions and coped very well.

"Obviously in a building that is fully occupied we were very concerned about the number of potential casualties."

He said there was no indication as to the cause of the fire.

Elderly residents

A police spokeswoman said three elderly people from the lower part of the building unaffected by the blaze were taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock after complaining of feeling unwell.

Witnesses said it was not the first fire to affect the tower block. One said the building had been on fire within the last year.

One believed the blaze had started in the flat of an elderly disabled man which had caught fire before.

A spokeswoman for North Ayrshire Council, which owns the tower block, said the rest of the building had been evacuated. Residents were taken to a nearby centre and found emergency accommodation by the council.

One resident, Mary Smith, said she was in her flat on the seventh floor when the fire broke out.

Hands and knees

"We saw the fire engines and tried to get out, but we couldn't.

"It seemed like about 10 or 15 minutes later when the firemen came and tried to get us out by going along on our hands and knees.

"The smoke was too thick. We got lifted out by the fire engine."

Her daughter Olivia, 15 months, was also rescued. Both were seen by ambulance crew but were uninjured.

Other eyewitnesses who did not wish to be named said the tower block went up in flames almost instantly.