Fire chief’s pledge on trouble-plagued flats
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service says it is still monitoring the situation at Pomarium flats in Perth despite a marked drop in incidents.
A fire chief has told councillors there have been no deliberate fires at the city centre flats since May.
At the start of May, the PA revealed that residents in the flats were left terrified during lockdown with deliberate fires becoming a regular occurrence.
In April residents reported four fires within the space of a fortnight.
Residents at the flats were also plagued by a spate of deliberate fires which started back in December 2019.
But the situation seemed to exacerbate during lockdown and residents were frightened as they followed government guidance to stay at home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Group manager of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Billy McLintock said:
“Obviously we have done a significant amount of work led by the council, particularly the housing team, the police who were doing investigation around the number of incidents and obviously ourselves doing engagement with everybody there.
“Since we did that bit of work, the bin chutes they used to put the refuse down have also been closed off and all the bins are now outside.”
Mr McLintock said a fire suppression system installed by the council “was a massive help because it minimised the damage,” although it did not seem to stop the incidents.
He added: “The last incident we had there was on May 25.
“Since then the only incident we have had is around someone in their house with burnt toast so no deliberate fires there at all after that.
“So the work we have done is absolutely fantastic.
“It seems to have stopped but it’s not something we are taking our eye off it. We are still monitoring that area and around that area to see if there are any fires that might be linked to someone’s behaviour, if you like.”
He would not comment on the work done by Police Scotland but said the work the SFRS, PKC and Police Scotland as a partnership had stopped the incidents and they “were not taking their eye off the ball.”