‘Fireball’ Costa Coffee mother dies of injuries

A mother who suffered 30 per cent burns to her body at a branch of Costa Coffee in Edinburgh has died. Picture: Jane Barlow

Kirsty Lennon, 33, suffered 30 per cent burns in an Edinburgh branch of Costa Coffee last Tuesday and was taken to St John’s Hospital in Livingston for treatment.

However, police today confirmed that the woman, from Dalkeith, Midlothian, had died from her injuries on Friday. Friends expressed sympathy for her partner and child on social media.

Horrified onlookers had described how Ms Lennon ran screaming from the bathroom into the main café in South Bridge, covered in flames “like a human fireball”.

Drew Cochrane, 25, manager of the Rock’n’Roll tattoo parlour, described how he threw his jacket on her when she burst out of the toilets on fire.

He said: “I was in Costa, minding my own business, when the fire alarm went off. No one seemed to be moving. Then I heard chairs scrape and folk screaming and a woman came bailing out of the toilet on fire.

“Hair on fire, clothes burned totally off. Had to chuck my jacket on her, call an ambulance.”

Joined by another man, Mr Cochrane helped extinguish some of the flames while a third man managed to grab a fire  extinguisher to put out the fire engulfing Ms Lennon’s legs.

Last night, he said he had been “shocked” by news of her death, and had expected the victim to survive her ordeal.

He said: “Obviously, I saw that she was badly burnt but I didn’t think it would be fatal. She was conscious and speaking afterwards.

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“I expected her to need reconstructive surgery, but for her to have died is unbelievable.”

Witnesses said they heard chairs scraping back and a child screaming as a woman burst out of the toilet with her trousers on fire. The clothes on the bottom half of Ms Lennon’s body had been completely burnt off, they said, while her hands had appeared to be particularly badly burnt.

Andy Connelly-Nimmo, of Moredun in Edinburgh, who also witnessed the incident, described the news as “horrible”.

The 38-year-old had been sitting at the front window of the shop with his laptop when a staff member started screaming.

He said: “I was in the café at the far side.

“By the time I realised what was going on, people were already putting out the flames.

“I was not sure what was going on. It’s terrible that she was in that situation.”

A police spokeswoman said emergency services had been called to the café after a woman sustained “serious burns”, adding: “She was taken to St John’s, Livingston, for treatment; however, she sadly died on Friday, 6 February.

“A report will be sent to the procurator-fiscal.”

A Costa spokeswoman said: “Our thoughts are with her and her family at this time.”