A bystander has told of the moment he helped pull a man to safety through his living room window – as a fire tore through his Dundee home.
The blaze, which destroyed the inside of the house on Ballantrae Place in Douglas, began at around 6pm on Tuesday.
The occupier, believed to be a pensioner, was rushed to Ninewells Hospital after the incident.
A group of people was able to pull the man from the property as flames shot from the windows and doors of the terraced house.
A police cordon remained in place until around 11.30am on Wednesday, with firefighters, police officers and workers from Tayside Contracts in attendance.
The property has since been fenced off.
Philip Lynch, 34, lives on neighbouring Ballindean Gardens and saw the smoke from his house.
He said: “I stay a bit around the corner and saw the smoke, so being a bit nosey went round for a look.
‘Screaming and shouting’
“As I was going around I just heard screaming and shouting so I sped up a bit. I could hear loads of smashing.
“When I got there, there was a guy already at the window. Afterwards I was speaking to him and he said he put a concrete slab through the window to smash it.
“The flames were bursting out the front door and the rooms above. There was nothing coming out of the living room window. Everyone was screaming, ‘get out, get out’.
“There were a load of people watching but only one guy at the window.
“When I heard somebody was in there, I thought to myself, ‘we’re going to have to go in there to get him’.
“Luckily enough he was at the window and we were able to drag him out. I ran over and when I got to the window it was all broken glass, so I was a wee bit apprehensive.
“I saw the guy standing there in his living room, halfway in the room kind of slouched over.
“I started shouting, ‘give us your hand’. Me and the other guy were trying to get a hold of him.
“Eventually, he came towards the window and there must have been like a table or something he was leaning against, and eventually we managed to get his hand.”
Philip says he was trying to ignore the debris that was falling from the roof as he help the man.
He continued: “We got him and managed to kind of drag him across this table and window sill with the glass there.
Seconds later, flames were belting out the window. He’s very, very lucky to be alive.
“We got him across and halfway across the window and kind of screamed to other people to come and give us a hand to lift him.
“If he hadn’t have managed that I don’t know what we would have done.
“Pulling someone out over a table and ledge is a lot different to getting in a house and lifting them out.
“By the time we got him out onto the pavement there were still no emergency services there, so we were checking he was alright.
“He had a couple of cuts and I just opened his mouth to see if he was breathing alright.
“Once we got him out of the house and on the ground, seconds later the flames were belting out of that window. He’s very, very lucky to be alive.
“The only thing we could really get out of him was that there was nobody else in the house – thank God.
‘I was shaken up after it’
“It wasn’t until afterwards I saw a video of when the firefighters arrived, and I saw the size of the flames, I thought, ‘wow, he is scarily, scarily lucky’.
“To be honest, if it wasn’t for that first guy putting the window in, I don’t think he would have made it.
“I was kind of shaken up after it to be honest, it was weird being in that situation.
“On my way around I heard a couple of smashes so I think that must have been when the windows were going in from the pressure of the fire.
“He must have had a good fire door on the living room and had it shut, because the flames coming out of the front and back door, and windows, were huge.”
Marion McLeod, 67, was in the house next door with husband Neil and grandson Murray when she smelled smoke around 6pm.
She frantically tried to alert her neighbour to get him out of the house to safety.
She said: “If it wasn’t for the six guys he wouldn’t have made it out. They carried him out of the front window – dragged him out.
‘I was screaming his name’
“I could smell the smoke and went round the back and saw it. I was screaming [his name].
“I was chapping on the back door telling him to get out the front. I was glad we got out when I did because my husband Neil is on oxygen.
“The flames coming out of the windows were unbelievable. I could smell the smoke.
“Everyone in the street was watching. It was all ongoing all night, you could hear all the machinery.”
Police Scotland confirmed that one man was taken to hospital for treatment, though the extent of his injuries is not known.
A spokeswoman said: “Around 6.05pm on Tuesday July 27, police were called to a fire at a property in Ballantrae Place, Dundee.
“Emergency services attended and the male householder was taken to hospital for treatment.
“Inquiries are continuing.”