By Mark McLaughlin

TWO TAYSIDE Police constables were taken to hospital along with seven residents of a Dundee tenement last night after an ill-fated rescue attempt backfired.

The officers were returning to the Hilltown police station, on North George Street, at around 6pm when they noticed an orange glow coming from a close in the facing tenement.

One officer ran in to evacuate residents—including a 92-year-old woman—from the four-storey building while the second remained on the ground.

However, the intrepid officer became trapped himself as the fire grew in intensity near the building’s exit.

Five Tayside Fire and Rescue appliances arrived almost immediately and extinguished the fire, allowing the constable and the residents to exit safely.

Police were still investigating the cause of the fire last night, although it was thought not to be suspicious.

Speaking from the scene shortly after the blaze, Sergeant Bob Saunders confirmed that two police constables were taken to Ninewells Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

He said, “The officer must have run in when the fire was still in its infancy and by the time he was making his exit with the residents it had become somewhat more serious.

“Rather than lead residents through the smoke, which had by now engulfed the ground floor, he instructed the residents to wait upstairs until fire crews arrived.

“The officer and his female colleague were taken to hospital with the residents as a precaution and there were no serious injuries.”

The fire started on the first floor of the house, opposite Hilltown police station, at around 6pm and quickly spread, engulfing the building and trapping the terrified residents inside.

Fire fighters sent five appliances to the fire, which blazed for around 30 minutes before it was brought under control.

Watch manager Steve Low of Blackness Road Fire Station revealed household rubbish left on the ground floor stairwell had started the fire. He urged the public to dispose of all rubbish safely and not to keep it on a stairwell.

He said, “Once the fire was extinguished firefighters were deployed to do a thorough search of all floors. They led eight members of the public to safety and put them into the hands of the police.”

A spokeswoman for the police said, “Both officers have since been released from hospital and have gone back to work.”