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refused to come. They want to stay with our friends. You can’t get to the flat without walking up the stairs. We can’t hide the damage from them. We were offered accommodation overnight in Wester Hailes but we stayed with friends.”
Twelve people including kids needed medical treatment – mainly for smoke inhalation – as a result of the fire. One child was taken to hospital.
Mutasim, who was a doctor in Sudan, was forced to claim asylum after being persecuted and threatened with prison for speaking his mind.
Fearing the worst, he moved to Scotland last year and his young family followed two months later. Mutasim has praised the “kind and friendly” people of Edinburgh but he is distraught at the condition of the flats that he is being asked to bring his family back to.
He said: “The smoke makes you cough and is bad for you. It will be unhealthy for my children. I wish the council would clean up the black walls in the hallway – even that would be better.”
The acrid smell of smoke lingers as you walk into the building and all lighting in the stairwell is broken.
The stairs are stained black with water streaks from where firefighters battled to dampen the blaze.
Edinburgh Council said: “The stairwell will be thoroughly cleaned as soon as the police investigation has concluded.”
A man who is suspected of brandishing a knife and starting the fire was last night being held by police under the Mental Health Act. ● A BLACK cat called Toast died in the blaze and another – ginger tom Beans – is missing after fleeing the burning building. Beans’s owners, who have two young children, have appealed for help in tracing the pet.
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