Body is found after blaze rips through house
One person died yesterday in an early-morning fire at a terraced house.
Emergency services were called to the property in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, just after 3am, with a total of 20 firefighters attending the blaze. The fire was extinguished but a body was discovered during a search of the home on Bute Avenue.
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service and Strathclyde Police have not released any details of the victim and the cause of the fire is not yet known. A joint investigation is being carried out.
Meanwhile, four people were rescued from their flats after a fire in Edinburgh. They were treated at the scene by an ambulance crew but did not need to go to hospital.
Firefighters were called to Buckingham Terrace at 4.40am after a blaze broke out in the area between the first and second-floor flats of a four- storey building.
At the height of the fire 29 firefighters and five fire engines were at the scene.
A student was forced to decide whether to stay in the top floor flat, or overcome her lifelong fear of heights to be rescued by fire-fighters using a turntable ladder.
Alex Jeffrey, 17, and boyfriend Shae Grimsdale, 18, were woken by thick, choking smoke at the property near Edinburgh’s Stockbridge area shortly before 4.30am yesterday.
Mr Grimsdale had been staying in his parents’ flat on Buckingham Terrace while training to become an engineer in South Queensferry. Girlfriend Alex, a sixth form college student, was up from Berwick for the weekend.
Realising they were trapped with no way of fleeing downstairs, they called for help and stood by their bedroom window. Alex is scared of heights and was panicking when firefighters arrived.
She said: “They got us to climb out of the window and stand on this 2ft ledge. I was scared, terrified. But it was either that or stay in the burning building. I went down first, they checked if I was okay then went up for Shae.”
A large part of Buckingham Terrace was cordoned off while Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service tackled the blaze and secured the site.
The fire was extinguished by 8.30am but fire crews were still on site checking the building for any potentially dangerous hot spots.
The latest house fires come as Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing met firefighters who had to deal with a series of fatal blazes over the festive period.
Mr Ewing talked with fire officers at Cowcaddens Fire Station in Glasgow.
On January 7, Scotland’s top firefighter said the period following Christmas had seen an “unprecedented level of tragedy”, with five deaths, 68 injuries and 250 homes destroyed by fire. Strathclyde Fire and Rescue chief officer Brian Sweeney said alcohol was a factor in the deaths.
On January 12, a man died in Dundee after a fire at his flat in a multistorey block in Adamson Court.
Mr Ewing used the visit to the fire station to warn against complacency in the fight against fire.
He said: “Even though the number of fire-related deaths dropped last year, sadly, as we have seen over the festive period, too many families in Scotland are still having to deal with the tragedy of losing a loved one because of fire.
“The Scottish Government and fire services continue to work hard educating people about the dangers of fire, and the most important message we can give is not to be complacent and always be on your guard. We also urge you to get a smoke alarm and check it regularly to ensure it is in working order. Alarms really do save lives.”
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