Crews tackle fire at former Woolies store

Published on Friday 14 August 2009 10:03

THE last Woolworths store to close in Edinburgh was hit by fire last night.

Three appliances attended the Big W store on Milton Road shortly before 9pm, following several calls from the public.

Crews arrived to find the premises well alight.

The store has been deserted since it pulled down its shutters on January 6 following the collapse of the Woolworths high street chain.

Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze had been caused by a minor fire outside the store, which was started maliciously.

There was little inside the empty store to damage as the fixtures and fittings were sold off by administrators alongside the stock, and nobody was injured.

Meanwhile, firefighters attended three kitchen fires in the city last night and the early hours of today.

A woman needed oxygen after a chip pan fire in a ground floor flat in Lord Russell Place in Sciennes.

A man was rescued by firefighters and taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after another chip pan fire at Rosemount Buildings in Fountainbridge.

And an elderly man was treated by paramedics after a grill pan fire in a flat on Gillespie Crescent in Bruntsfield.

Fire crews also attended a fire in the roof of a townhouse on Royal Terrace this morning. Nobody was injured in the blaze, just before 6:30am.