Probe after neighbours flee blaze in Buckhaven block of flats.

Firefighters spent more than an hour tackling the blaze in Den Walk

An investigation is to be conducted into a fire in a flat in Buckhaven which forced neighbours to flee their homes in the early hours.

One neighbour was alerted to the blaze by a 75-year-old woman who saw flames leaping from a window as she returned home, and another escaped shortly after she had gone to bed.

Firefighters spent more than an hour battling the incident in Den Walk. The cause has yet to be established. A spokesman for Police Scotland confirmed a joint investigation was to be conducted with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The alarm was raised at around 12.25am on Sunday, and firefighters rushed to the flat which was unoccupied at the time.

Neighbour Jackie Masson, 31, had just gone to bed when two friends who live nearby banged on her door.

Her three-year-old daughter, Jessie, was staying with her father and Jackie said: “Thank God she wasn’t here to see any of it. She would have been traumatised.

“I was in my bed and was just falling asleep when I heard shouting outside and my friends banging frantically on the door.

“I pulled on a pair of jammie bottoms and had to go out into the rain.”

Another neighbour Margaret Wilson alerted the downstairs occupant of the block of four when she saw smoke and heard the alarm when she arrived home with husband Dougie, 73, as The Courier reported yesterday.

A fire service spokesman said: “The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 12.25am on Sunday, September 16 to reports of a fire at a flat in Buckhaven.

“Operations control mobilised three fire engines to Den Walk where firefighters extinguished the fire on the first floor.

“There were no casualties. “Crews left the scene after ensuring the area was made safe. There will be a joint investigation with Police Scotland into the cause of the fire.”

I was in my bed and was just falling asleep when I heard shouting outside and my friends banging frantically on the door

Picture: Steven Brown. The scorched and boarded-up property in Den Walk.