Man dies in early-hours blaze at high rise block of city flats

AN INVESTIGATION is being carried out after a man died following an early-morning fire in a multistorey block of flats yesterday.

Firefighters took more than an hour to bring the fire at Greendykes House, on the southside of Edinburgh, under control.

Seventeen firefighters used three pumping appliances and a turntable ladder in an attempt to rescue the man from the third-floor flat after the alarm was raised just before 1:15am.

Firefighters using breathing apparatus broke down the door to the flat and called for paramedics when they realised someone was inside.

Cameron McKenzie, group manager at Dalkeith and Newcraighall fire station, said: "People living on the second, third and fourth floors were advised to stay indoors where they were but to open their windows. This was safer for them than going out on to the common areas which were full of smoke."

A fire investigation unit remained at the scene through the night to try to establish the cause of the blaze.

One resident of the council-owned block said he had been away overnight and returned to his flat around 5am. "I live nigh on at the top of the block, and the smoke had risen right up to there – when I went into my flat you could smell the smoke," he said. "We've actually just been fitted with new fire doors on the front door of the flats, which is the new big thing that the council are pushing.

"Over the years I've been there, there have been four or five flat fires plus lots of fires in the bin chutes."

The crews from Newcraighall, Marionville and Tollcross stations extinguished the fire by 2:30am. Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said that it was not treating the fire as suspicious.