Dad hails neighbours after escaping flat blaze with son

A FATHER who escaped a flat blaze with his son by leaping 15 feet from a window has told how they could have been killed if it was not for his quick-thinking neighbours.

• Scott Main lowered himself and his son from the first-floor window to escape the fire at their Wester Hailes flat

Scott Main lowered his 11-year-old son to rescuers below before jumping from the first-floor window of his Calder Crescent home in Wester Hailes after fireraisers started a blaze in a storage area on the ground floor.

The 43-year-old insisted the pair were "very lucky" to have escaped unscathed and credited police and neighbours for sounding the alarm.

Mr Main described how he first heard voices shouting outside that the block was on fire. On opening his front door, he found the common stair was blocked by flames and quickly realised he would need to escape through the living room window.

"I was sitting here watching television when I heard loud banging and someone shouting: 'There's a fire, you have to get out,'" said the father-of-one. "I opened my front door and was hit with a wave of smoke and could also see the fire coming up on to the landing. The flames were rising up towards the front door and I realised it was too bad to try to walk through.

"The fire was even shooting up towards the bathroom window. Out the front, the police and neighbours had gathered on the street.

"My son had been playing his Xbox and I took him to the window and told him to grip on to the window sill and helped to lower him down.

"He was pretty frightened, was crying a bit and didn't want to let go at first, but he finally dropped and someone caught him below. I followed him by hanging on to the sill and dropping to the ground."

Mr Main said he suspected the fireraisers were probably "young bairns" but warned that the consequences of the fire, which broke out at 10pm on Monday, could have been much more serious.

"This could have been a tragedy, especially if none of the neighbours had come banging when they did."

Peter McDonald, 53, one of the ground-floor neighbours who helped catch Mr Main's falling son, also Scott, said a bizarre twist of fate had alerted residents and the fire brigade to the danger.

"The police had followed my daughter and her friend round to this house because one of the headlights was out in their car when they saw flames coming from the storage area near our house," he said. "The police called the fire brigade and if it weren't for that, this place could have gone up."

Residents in the four affected flats were kept out for two hours while fire crews made the area safe. They were allowed back in their smoke-damaged homes by midnight.

No-one was hurt, but among the torched debris in the storage area was what appeared to be the remains of a ferret.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said: "The likelihood is that this would have been started deliberately.

"In general, people should not really leap from a building unless it's a last case option."

Meanwhile police have launched an investigation after a chip shop and pub owned by the same West Lothian businessman were torched in early morning fire attacks.

The Minerva Food Bar and Grand Central bar, both in Livingston, were deliberately set on fire within hours of each other yesterday morning, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

The businesses are owned by Franco Cortellessa.

It is believed a gang of youths are responsible for setting the fires after CCTV images from both premises caught them on camera.