Blazes claim lives of vulnerable pair

TWO pensioners died yesterday after house fires in Scotland, bringing the total number of fire-related fatalities to five in just 72 hours.

An elderly woman died after suffering serious burns when a "ferocious" fire ripped through her tenement home in Edinburgh, while a 68-year-old disabled man died after a blaze at his home in Luss, Dunbartonshire.

The Edinburgh woman, named locally as Berit Mountain, a 79-year-old widow, was rescued by firefighters from her first-floor flat in the Marchmont area of the city on Monday evening and treated by paramedics before being taken by ambulance with a police escort to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. She was later transferred to the burns unit at St John's Hospital in Livingston, where she died early yesterday.

Two men and a woman were taken to hospital with less serious injuries.

Richard Robinson, who lives above the flat, described the scene at the height of the blaze as being "like a bonfire coming out the window". Flames shattered the windows and left scorch marks on the five-storey building in Argyle Park Terrace, overlooking the Meadows.

Mr Robinson said: "I was in my house when I smelled burning. I went round my flat checking things were all right then went out on to the landing and saw a wee wisp of smoke coming up the stairwell.

"I phoned the fire brigade straight away. After I put the phone down, I went downstairs and saw grey smoke coming out from Mrs Mountain's door.

"I hammered on her door to try to rouse her. I could hear noises, as though someone was moving along the corridor. I was afraid that if I knocked the door down, I'd make it worse for her. The firefighters were here within two minutes and were running up the stairs with their hoses.

"I went out into the street and the flames were like a bonfire coming out the window. The flames coming out of her bedroom window were lapping up at my window."

Mr Robinson said the dead woman, who was Swedish and whose father had been a well-known artist, had a daughter, Kathryn, who lived in Edinburgh and a son, an astronomer working in the United States.

He also said she had worked with a homeless charity, the Ark.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders fire service said more than 20 firefighters had attended the blaze, after a number of 999 calls were received at about 5:41pm on Monday.In another fatal fire yesterday, a disabled man died after a blaze broke out in the bedroom of his bungalow in the village of Luss, on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Grandfather Eddie Combe's council carers raised the alarm after finding his house filled with smoke at 10am.

Firefighters forced their way in to extinguish the blaze, but found the 68-year-old pensioner had already died.

Neighbour Margaret Cowie, 90, said last night: "His death is a terrible tragedy - it is so sad. It makes me think that people maybe should have paid more attention to him and helped him more."

Mr Combe's death was the fourth fire fatality in the Strathclyde area in 72 hours, and the fifth across Scotland, prompting fire chiefs to issue warnings to householders yesterday to take extra care.