DEATH TRAP
Tyres near home ‘must be moved’
A Paisley mum was left terrified after firebugs torched a pile of dumped tyres and furniture beside her home sparking a 25ft blaze.
Stunned Liz Wilson
returned to her Well Street home after a meal with her daughter and found the street engulfed in thick black smoke.
Detectives investigating the potentially deadly fire have revealed they believe it was started deliberately.
Last night Liz told the Paisley Daily Express that she rushed inside her home to alert her son Scott to the danger before calling the fire service.
She said: “I came home around 9pm on Monday and the fire was raging.
“I was out for dinner at Linwood Farm with my daughter. The taxi came back and dropped me off and I ran into the house to get my son.
“His room is at the front so he hadn’t noticed it. Scott came downstairs and I went in to call the fire service. They arrived around 9.20pm and were there until 1am or so.
“I waited outside for them to arrive and once they were here I went back in.
“I was terrified because the embers from the fire were hitting my roof and my decking.
“Our lives are at risk while those tyres are there.”
The incident comes just months after fire ripped through the top portion of a tenement flat in the same street.
Police probing the latest fire are appealing for information.
Inspector Tracy Harkins, from Paisley’s community policing team, said: “A substantial fire was deliberately set close to residential properties in Well Street.
“This was an incredibly dangerous and reckless incident which could have had very serious consequences.
“If you saw or heard anything suspicious in the area then we would ask you to get in touch with police.”
Relentless fly-tipping has been going on at the back of Liz’s flat for a number of years, leaving a filthy pile of old furniture, discarded white goods and a mountain of tyres.
Liz added: “The whole thing has given me a fright.
“It makes me feel unsafe but I have been feeling like that for the last couple of months because there was a drug raid and the tyres have went on fire before.
“This is my home and I want to stay but it’s got to be made safe. All that needs to happen is the tyres need to be removed, before it costs someone their life.”
A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “We were alerted on Monday at 9.12pm to reports of a large quantity of tyres alight.
“Operations Control mobilised two appliances to the scene where firefighters extinguished the fire. A crew then re-attended on Tuesday at 8.47am after pockets of fire had reignited.”
Anyone with information should call police on 101.