Woman dies after blaze at cottage

A 65-YEAR-OLD woman has died after being pulled from a house fire in the Lothians.

The victim, named locally as Mary Mackie, died in hospital after the blaze took hold at Crawlees Cottages, Suttislea Road, Newtongrange.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue said emergency services were called to the scene just after midday.

An eyewitness said he saw CPR being performed on a woman outside the property.

Mrs Mackie was rushed to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but died in hospital.

The fire had taken hold in the ground floor of the two-storey property and the building was well alight when emergency services arrived.

One resident told the Evening News: “I heard the sound of the firefighters taking off the manhole covers to get access to the water supply – there was a lot of commotion.

“They were performing CPR on a woman and they were trying for quite some time.”

Another resident said: “My wife looked out of the window and saw there was smoke coming from the property. We just thought somebody was burning rubbish in the garden.”

Firefighters from Dalkeith and Musselburgh were in attendance for around 40 minutes.

The scene was cordoned off by the police for several hours while a fire investigation unit attempted to determine the cause of the blaze.

Police have said there were not believed to be any suspicious circumstances.

Mrs Mackie is believed to have lived with her husband, Robert, who owns a local building firm.

The family were described as “well known” in the village.

A fire service spokeswoman said a female casualty had been taken to hospital but died from smoke inhalation.

The spokeswoman added that nobody else was in the property at the time and that passers-by alerted the emergency services after noticing smoke coming from the house.

A police spokesman said: “Police attended at Crawlees Cottages in Newtongrange around midday today, in response to a fire that had broken out within a property.

“The 65-year-old female occupant was taken by ambulance to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she passed away.

“At this stage there are not thought to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding the fire.”

It is the second fatal blaze in Midlothian in the past two months. A 42-year-old man died at a flat fire in the neighbouring village of Mayfield in December.