The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cleaners help to raise alarm at house blaze
Cleaners returning from work in St Andrews raised the alarm after coming across a fire in a derelict house.
Vikki Mcginnie, Jenna Mccormack and Gill Rushton were travelling home to Dollar when they came across the blaze in Muckhart.
The women alerted neighbours on either side to the blaze, helping evacuate them before fire crews arrived.
Vikki, who works for Elite Cleaning Services, said: “The flames weren’t visible at first as it was quite foggy, but there was smoke coming from the gutters.
“We stopped the car and got out. I went round the back and we could see it was clearly alight.
“My colleague called the fire service while we woke the neighbours up and alerted them.
“It was a bit of a blessing, it’s not a busy road and the neighbour on the right was very appreciative.
“Two of the cottages are quite close together and within 20 minutes of us spotting it the cottage went up very quickly.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed crews had extinguished a fire in the roof space of the building.
They said: “We were alerted at 11.35pm on Wednesday to reports of a fire within the roof space of a derelict building on High Street, Muckhart, Clackmannanshire.
“Operations control immediately mobilised three appliances to the location and firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire.
“Crews left the scene after ensuring the area was made safe.”
Vikki said she was glad that the locals escaped without injury, adding: “I don’t know what caused the fire but obviously we’re just happy no one was hurt.”