Edinburgh residents have told how they feared they would die as a blaze tore through a neighbour's flat in Craigmillar.
Vicky Skene, 41, and neighbour Ian Conners, 58, told how thick smoke filled the entire block in Peffer Street from a fire in a top-floor flat on Wednesday night.
Terrified residents grabbed anything they could while fleeing their homes and were left standing on the street for five hours as hero firefighters battled the inferno.
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Vicky said: "Everybody's doors got kicked in by firefighters, we were the last ones to escape. It was around six o'clock and at first, we were told to stay in and stayed in for 45 minutes.
"I heard someone kicking doors in and next thing I knew smoke gushing down through the stairs and into flats. We were then told to leave and had to quickly grab anything we needed.
"There was a puff of smoke that caught my throat, Colin downstairs was trying to get out with his dog and me and my partner were just in a t-shirt and pjs as we fled - I still had the tv remote in my pocket.
"There were flames, smoke and water spraying through the windows - the roof had collapsed and everything. The smoke inhalation was so bad, we covered our faces with our jumpers.
"It was horrific and spread very quickly, it was way out of control. We were scared we would die if we stayed in there."
She continued: "The state of the stair was really bad, it was covered in water with dust and debris everywhere. We were stuck in our flat for 45 minutes with the two dogs.
"We eventually got to go back in with a hard hat and a mask to go back in and get our medication. The smoke damage was horrendous.
"Then we were out in the street for five hours and didn't know what to do. We were like that till half midnight before the housing association booked us into a local Travelodge.
"At first they said they could put us up for the night but we couldn't take the dogs, the dogs are my bairns I couldn't leave them.
"I have COPD and the smoke really hurt my throat we had no way to get to the hotel they put us up in so we had to walk along Perffermill Road which made it worst.
"There are six of us from the stair staying in a hotel tonight and we don't know what will happen next. We are out of the flats for at least 48 hours.
"Everybody in the stair has issues and mental health problems which made it really stressful."
Hayley Cameron, 40, who lives next door to the flat where the fire started has been on the street all day and does not know the extent of the damage in her home.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live she said: "We got a notification from our Alexa to say that the fire alarms were going off - we looked through the doorbell camera and saw that next door was on fire.
"This was about five past six last night, by the time I got to the flats there were around six fire engines here and an incident unit outside and loads of police cars.
"We were all just standing outside waiting, it took them a few hours to put it out and there were huge shoots of water cascading down which was quite scary."
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She added: "We don't know what damage is in our flat as we aren't allowed to go in until the investigation is all finished.
"Two of our neighbours were taken to hospital - our next-door neighbour and another guy who has been released and is doing okay.
"Most of us stayed in the Travelodge last night and now we are just waiting to find out what we can do now."
Edinburgh Live understands there is an ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire and residents still don't know when they will gain access to their homes.
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