Tribute to musician killed in fire

The close friend of a “brilliant” musician killed in a tragic house fire has paid tribute to his friend.

Seumas Cairns, 45, died despite the efforts of rescue teams and ambulance staff to save him from a blaze in his high street flat in Dunbar last week.

Investigations into the cause of the fire were still ongoing this week but Lothian and Borders Police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious.

Mr Cairns was a former pupil of Dunbar Grammar School, and his close friend and band-mate Grahame Smith, who had played with Seumas in the group Setting Sons for almost a decade, said hearing the news of his friend’s death was “surreal”.

“He was an extremely well-known and well-loved guy,” he said. “He played in a lot of bands – even when he was in Setting Sons, he had a lot of other projects on the go.

“When the news came out last week, it was a weird, surreal feeling. We were talking about getting things ready [in the band] for this year.”

A funeral service for Mr Cairns, to which all friends are invited, is taking place at Belhaven Parish Church tomorrow at 10.30am.