A quick-thinking local resident has told how she raised the alarm after a pizza shop burst into flames on Wednesday morning.
Jade Jackson lives near Haymarket Station and she wasted no time calling 999 shortly after 11am when she saw black smoke and soot billowing from a chimney on Dalry Road.
“It was just smoke, but it was very thick black smoke,” Jade said.
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“I was standing in the road on the way to the train station when I seen it. I called 999 and told them.”
Jade and her neighbour Yvonne Morrison believe that the pizza oven and chimney at Pizza Geeks caught fire and fears it may have soon spread.
After Jade called authorities, others in the area started to notice something wasn’t right. While Jade and other concerned residents waited for firefighters to arrive, the women witnessed an unknown young man bravely rush into the pizza shop to grab a fire extinguisher.
“It all happened really quickly,” Yvonne said.
“A guy who was stood with us went running into the building and grabbed a fire extinguisher to help. The pizza shop has an open fire in the pizza oven, and he was trying to put it out.”
Jade said she spoke with the shop owner after he was evacuated. She told how he suffered smoke inhalation while another casualty suffered from a burnt hand.
“It’s a shock,” Yvonne said. “[Jade] did the right thing. A chimney fire like that, it could take not just the pizza place but the flat’s above it and it could have taken the whole street really.”
The Scottish Fire Service have confirmed that two people were injured during the incident - one suffering from burns and another from smoke inhalation.
The incident was reported to authorities at 11.07am on Wednesday November 2. Three fire appliances responded to the blaze with water hoses and a large height appliance was raised to the roof of the tenement buildings.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: "Crews arrived at 11.07am on Thursday November 2 and three engines and a height appliance are in attendance."
Dalry Road was closed to traffic in both directions for more than an hour. Lothian Buses announced diversions for multiple bus routes, including the 2, 3, 25, 33, 4, and 44. However, the transport authority ended diversions just after 12:30pm.
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