Emergency services were called to the garden of a home on Finella Place last night after a tree was deliberately set on fire.
The fire, which was reported at 8pm on Sunday, first started at a playpark just off Fintry Drive, however the flames soon spread to the adjacent garden of 24-year-old Jamie Scott.
Police are treating the fire as “deliberate” and “inquiries are ongoing”.
Jamie said: “My partner was sitting having her tea at about 8pm last night when she looked out and saw all the orange.
“She called me over and we both saw the flames and called the fire brigade.
“It was definitely lit by a person because the back of my garden leads out into a park on Fintry Drive.”
Neighbours used hoses to stop flames
The homeowner was joined by some of his neighbours in an effort to contain the blaze while the emergency services were on their way.
He said: “As soon as I was off the phone I went and got my garden hose and so did one of my neighbours, and we just tried to put it out with the hoses.
“All my neighbours on each side were perfect, they’re still asking if we need anything at all.
“I think that because this was so clearly intentional we all just need to keep an eye out for this kind of thing.”
‘Things could have been a lot worse’
While nobody was hurt in the blaze, the young father has claimed that things could have ended in a much more tragic way.
“We have a two-year-old daughter,” he said. “Usually we let her play in the garden a wee bit before bed – just to let her work off some steam and that.
“For whatever reason we didn’t let her out last night, which we’re obviously very glad about now.
“Things could have been a lot worse, it was just a shock.
“There’s no lasting damage, but I am going to try and get those trees removed because we’ve been told that this isn’t the first time this has happened, it happened before we moved in.”
Fire being treated as deliberate
A spokesman for Tayside Fire and Rescue Service said: “We received a call from Finella Place at 8.09pm last night and the stop call was put in at 8.22pm.
“One hose reel jet was used to extinguish the flames.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We were made aware of a fire in a garden at Finella Place in Dundee shortly after 8.10pm on Sunday, July 4.
“The fire was extinguished and no one was injured.
“The fire is being treated as deliberate and inquiries are ongoing. Anyone with information can call 101, quoting incident 3383 of July 5.”