By James Williamson

FIREFIGHTERS WERE struggling to control a fire in a top floor flat in Dundee city centre last night.

Crews from across the city fought the flames, in the roofspace of the flat above The Counting House bar at the corner of Meadowside and Reform Street.

It is understood that the flats are not inhabited and are at present undergoing refurbishment.

There was not thought to be any threat to life.

Counting House patrons reported smelling smoke in the bar just after 10pm.

Duty manager Ranald Duncan, who raised the alarm, said, “I saw smoke in the doorway and in the stairwell.

“I got everyone out and you could see the flames coming over the top of the roof.”

Around 70 customers evacuated the building quickly, Mr Duncan said.

Firefighters were quickly on the scene, but the blaze rapidly spread through the roofspace of the building.

Police closed the roads around Albert Square to all traffic as firefighters struggled to contain the fire.

At the height of the blaze, four appliances were in use, along with two aerial ladders and a command support unit.

Station manager Craig Thomson, from Macalpine Road said the fire broke through the roof of the building “quite quickly.”

“We mounted a rapid attack on the fire using the aerial appliance,” he said.

“That made significant inroads, but the only way to extinguish the fire was to fight it internally.

“Eight crew members wearing breathing apparatus are currently fighting pockets of fire in the roof space.

“We are ventilating the area by opening skylights and following that we’ll be damping down and cutting away any affected timbers. We’ll be here for several hours just to make sure that the fire is out.”