Dundee residents were awoken by a fire alarm in the early hours of Friday morning as flames and smoke filled their tenement close.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they attended the blaze on Constitution Street at around 12.30am.
The flames appeared to originate from a ground floor storage cupboard beneath the stairs and blocked off the stairs while the fire raged.
One nearby resident on the street claimed a man was caught on camera setting the fire in the close, which does not have an entrance door.
Residents were told to remain in their flats while the fire service combatted the blaze and secured the area.
Police confirmed there were no injuries and enquiries are ongoing.
One resident of the block, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We were woken up by the fire alarm.
“When we turned the light on, the flat was filled with smoke.
“We opened the front door and all we could feel was this strong heat and the close was full with black smoke.
“So we closed all of our doors and put towels under them to block the smoke.”
‘It makes me sick that someone could do that’
They added: “When the firefighters arrived, they shouted up to us to check we were OK.
“It was hard to hear them over the fire alarm, but they were fantastic the whole time.
“We sat in the flat for an hour with all of the windows open while they secured the close as it wasn’t safe to leave yet.
“Eventually they said we could leave floor by floor.
“If it was deliberate, it makes me sick that someone could do something like that.
“It just makes me feel unsafe here.
“We have no idea what exactly was on fire, or whether it was carcinogenic.
“When I moved in, that cupboard was just filled with rubbish including an old hob, ready meal boxes, bits of paper, even a mattress too I think. The door didn’t lock either.”
‘They looked terrified – it was traumatic’
A resident who lives near the tenement block said: “We heard the fire alarm in those flats going off just before 12.30am.
“We ran outside to try and help and we saw all of those people looking down from their windows.
“I phoned 999 right away but the people in the flats were shouting down to us and asking how to escape.
“People were screaming for help and they looked terrified – it was traumatic.
“Some of them have very young children.
“We checked our CCTV and you can clearly see someone lighting a fire deliberately.
“The close doesn’t have a door so you can see him just walk in and do it and then walk away down the street.
“It scares me that someone like that was so near to us.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were called to a three-story tenement block on Constitution Street at 00.32.
“Four appliances and aerial appliance attended.
“Police Scotland also attended.
“We received the stop message at 1:55am.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 12.45am on Friday, 1 April, 2022, police assisted firefighters as they dealt with a fire in a close in Constitution Street, Dundee.
“No-one was injured in the incident and enquiries are ongoing to establish the cause of the fire, which is being treated as wilful.”
