Fire crews battled an early morning blaze in an Aberdeen high rise yesterday – believed to have been caused by unextinguished ashes dumped down the building’s bin chute.
About 20 firefighters in four appliances tackled the fire at the 15-storey Rosehill Court in the city’s Stockethill area after they were alerted by automatic fire alarms around 9.30am.
Police were also on the scene as residents gathered outside the building to watch the drama unfold.
The fire, which investigators say could have been caused by a lit cigarette or cooking ashes being dumped down the bin chute, caused smoke to pour onto the corridors of every floor of the building.
Firefighters used a water pump to put out the blaze in the bin area of the first floor before moving through the building to clear the smoke.
Nobody was evacuated but fire crews warned anyone in the building to stay in their flats.
A fire service spokesman said the blaze was extinguished by 9.55am.
Speaking at the scene, station manager Graeme Goonan said: “We identified the fire as coming from within the bin chute area.
“The multitude of waste material gathered in the chute seems to have been set alight by some sort of ashes – these are often from cigarettes.
“Because of the way the bin chute leads up the building it has caused the smoke to filter through onto all 15 levels.
“The automatic fire alarm in the building alerted us almost immediately.”
He added: “It just shows that you need to be very careful when discarding anything to make sure it is completely extinguished.
“We have around 20 personnel here who could have been elsewhere.”
A top-floor resident of the building, who didn’t want to be named, said she awoke to find her corridor choked with smoke.
She said: “I woke up and was about to head to the shop when I opened my door and I could see nothing but smoke.
“I went back inside and called 999 but they said they were already attending and said I should stay inside.
“It was such a shock – I was totally panicked.”
Another branded whoever caused the fire “idiots”.
He said: “People like that just ruin the area, it could have been a lot worse.”