Man, 22, taken to hospital with burns after Brechin blaze

Monday 8.2.10

An Angus man was taken to hospital suffering from burns after a house fire at Brechin yesterday.

The 22-year-old was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee after sustaining burns in the ferocious blaze, which started at about 3.45am.

Two other occupants of the single-story cottage in Castle Street escaped unharmed after they were alerted to the flames by smoke alarms.

Two appliances from Brechin, one from Montrose and another from Forfar, as well as a command support unit and breathing apparatus support attended the fire, which took almost three hours to extinguish. The Scottish Ambulance Service and Tayside Police also attended.

It is thought the fire, which spread from a bedroom to the roof space of the property, was caused by an electric heating appliance.

It was so intense that fire fighters returned to the property in the afternoon to take thermal images and check for hot spots.

Tayside Fire and Rescue community safety manager Andy Hermiston said it highlighted the importance of working smoke alarms.

He said: “This fire would almost certainly have had far more serious consequences if it had not been for the smoke alarms alerting the occupants to the danger.

“This early warning allowed all the family members to leave the property and also allowed fire and rescue personnel to fight the fire without the need to conduct simultaneous search-and-rescue operations.”

The fire was one of 11 separate incidents throughout Tayside over the weekend.

Among them was a rubbish fire outside the Forfar Bowling Club in Lour Road, which happened at 6.30pm on Saturday.

Firefighters from Kingsway East and Macalpine Road stations in Dundee were also kept busy after a fire broke out at nursery in Dundee on Saturday. The fire at the Haddington House Nursery in Haddington Crescent was reported at 11.45pm and was out by 12.24am.

Firefighters used a jet, four sets of breathing apparatus and one hose reel. They cut holes in the roof to ventilate the property and checked for hot spots.