Hotel evacuated after fire breaks out

● Residents flee homes as gas cylinder explosion sparks blaze

Bungling work men are believed to have caused a major fire scare after setting alight the roof of a luxury New Town hotel in Edinburgh.

Worried residents were sent scurrying into the street after a roofer’s blowtorch is understood to have started the blaze and exploded a gas cylinder.

Quick- thinking staff evacuated the 28- room Nira Caledonia hotel in the city’s Gloucester Place yesterday afternoon with no injuries reported.

“I saw the flames coming out of the roof and a lot of thick black smoke ,” said retired chartered surveyor and neighbour John Fowler, 66.

“Then I heard a very, very loud explosion. There was no debris, just the noise.”

About20 fire fighters and five engines were called to the four-storey converted Georgian town house at 2:50 pm.

Workmen on scaffolding are believed to have set a light a joist while working on the roof – causing a fire which exploded the cylinder.

Flames were seen lea ping from the roof of the hotel and a thick, black plume of smoke billowed across the skyline.

Workers themselves rushed downstairs to alert hotel staff who leapt into action evacuating guests and neighbours.

Concierge Zolton Kajos, 31, said: “It was very smokey and we heard a bang like a bomb going off. The alarm went off and we were making sure everybody got out. I went round to the neighbours knocking on doors too to explain the situation and that it was a real fire on top of the building.”

Headchef Gordon Inglis, 51, added :“The alarm went off and I just thought it was someone having a cigarette in their room but soon realised it was real and made sure all the guests got out.”

Cobbled crescent Gloucester Place was designed in 1823 by renowned architect Wil-

0 Firefighters tackle the blaze which started on the roof of Edinburgh’s Nira Caledonia hotel, left li am Play fair. The boutique hotel Nira Caledonia – former home of writer and friend of William Words worth, John Wilson – had been busy over the festival.

But it was at less than capacity yesterday after a large party of German tourists checked out and returned home.

The extent of the damage to the hotel was still unknown yesterday.