Electricians Check the Fire

Published: 03/04/2010
By Mike Farrell
A fire broke out on the sixth floor of a Dundee high-rise block of flats just weeks after another incident at the building.

Residents were evacuated from Tulloch Court, Hilltown, yesterday two weeks after a 23-year-old man was seriously injured after falling from the same floor.

Police and fire services investigating the blaze are treating the incident as suspicious.

Residents said they believed the sixth floor flat where the fire broke out was the same property the man fell from on Tuesday, March 23. Tayside Police, however, said last night there was nothing to suggest it was the same flat.

Officers began knocking on doors in the block at 7am yesterday telling residents to evacuate after the fire had been extinguished at 3.40am.

The measure was precautionary due to the large amount of water in the building, after vandalism to the building’s dry riser – a pipe used to distribute water to the different levels – caused extensive leaks throughout the building.

Around 10 residents took part in the initial evacuation, which saw them being moved to a rest facility set up at Kirkton Community Centre.

A further 10 joined them during the course of the morning, with many others either refusing to leave their flats, or instead going to family and friends’ homes.

One of the evacuees at the centre, Sandra McLaren, 62, who stays on the fifth floor, was woken at around 3.30am with the smoke alarm in the flat above her going off.

She said: “The shock of what was happening really didn’t hit me at first. There was water coming into my flat everywhere.

“Very quickly I was up to my ankles in brown, dirty water and I tried to grab as much as I could as quickly as possible.

“The firefighters were very good and helped me out quickly, but I really don’t know what is going to happen with my flat as it was badly flooded.”

David Fairlie, 53, stays in a fourth floor flat with his wife Heather, 44, and also stayed at the evacuation centre yesterday.

He said: “I have been living in the multis for 43 years and I can’t remember something like this happening.

“Our flat wasn’t affected by the water, but they wanted everyone out as a precaution because council staff were going to check the electricity and wiring in the building.

“I’d heard that the flat where the fire started was the same one the man fell out of a few weeks back. A lot of the people in the multis just didn’t open their doors when the police were coming around.”

A Dundee City Council spokesman confirmed yesterday that people living on floor nine and above could return, but other residents should contact the housing department on 01382 307301 to clarify their situation.

Four fire appliances from the Blackness Road, Kingsway and Macalpine Road stations attended the scene, with firefighters finding the doorway of the flat alight.

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