Fire-raisers trap kids in flat

THREE children have told of being trapped in a top-floor flat after thugs deliberately started a fire in their building.

• Fire crews attend the blaze at Pennywell Court.

The boy and two girls, all aged 11, were playing in the living room of the flat in Pennywell Court in Muirhouse when acrid smoke came pouring in from the common stair at around 12.40pm yesterday.

Fire crews had to tackle the blaze in the basement and allow the smoke to clear before they could reach the youngsters and lead them to safety.

The fire stemmed from a basement bin room where the culprits had deliberately started the blaze, the fire service said.

Firefighters used a turntable ladder to reach the window of the property to reassure the trapped children that help was on its way.

The boy, who was trapped in the third-floor flat with his sister, their friend and his mother, said: "We were sorting out the DVDs and games in the living room and smoke started coming through the front door.

"We looked into the stairway and there was smoke pouring up from the bottom.

"We were a bit scared. I grabbed my cat and we got in the bedroom and shut the door."

His sister said: "My mum was shouting out of the window to the fire brigade saying 'we've got three kids in here'.

"After a while there was a bang on the door and a fireman shouted 'it's the fire brigade, you can come out'.

"When the smoke had cleared enough they led us out. I was holding my cat really tightly as we went down the stairs."

Their mother, who asked not to be named, said the children were unharmed and had escaped with just "sooty noses".

They, along with a second family from the block, were checked over by paramedics but did not require hospital treatment.

Detectives are treating the fire as suspicious and have launched an investigation.

Speaking from the scene, Gordon Fisher, group manager with Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, said: "The stair had become heavily logged with acrid smoke. The children did everything right by getting into the bedroom, closing the door and opening the window. Once the smoke had sufficiently cleared we were able to lead them out to safety."

He added: "Without question this was deliberately set."

The blaze at Pennywell Court comes after the Evening News yesterday reported that a spate of other blazes may have been caused by a fire-raising gang.

A fire at a dentist surgery on Rankeillor Street on January 11 caused more than 90,000 damage. The day before the door of Starbucks on South Clerk Street was set alight.

On Tuesday night 35 firefighters rescued 12 people from a tenement block on the same street and battled a blaze that gutted the basement of a tenement. Eight hours earlier a fierce blaze, believed to be deliberately set, was discovered next door in the basement of Acuremedy herbalists.

Police say they are keeping an "open mind" as to whether those incidents are linked and have urged anyone who can assist with the investigations to contact them or Crimestoppers anonymously.