Firefighters Battle City Centre Blaze In Dundee

More than 50 firefighters have brought a blaze in a busy Dundee street under control.

It took hold of the Christmas Shop on the Murraygate yesterday afternoon.

Shoppers were forced out of the area as emergency crews tackled the flames.

In total eight fire engines, an aerial appliance, command unit with 50 firefighters tackled the blaze and brought it under control using several main fire-fighting jets and the aerial appliance as a water tower.

Fire crews wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze from Murraygate and the roof of a building to the rear to prevent it spreading to adjacent premises.

A large number of festive season shoppers gathered to watch as Police maintained cordons to keep the public at a safe distance.

Gas and Electricity Companies were called to ensure that supplies were isolated to the building whilst Scottish Ambulance Service crews attended as a precautionary measure due to the scale of the incident.

Area Manager Kenny Fraser, the SFRS incident commander, said: “Our firefighters were faced with a challenging and rapidly developing fire within the main shop and their priority was to ensure that no staff or customers were at risk and to save as much of the building as possible whilst prevent it spreading to adjacent premises within the row of shops in the Murraygate area.

“Through the efforts of the firefighters the fire was successfully contained to the Christmas Shop building and although there has been extensive damage, the neighbouring businesses were protected.

“Firefighters using a thermal image camera were able to check the building for hidden fire travel and effectively extinguish hotspots.”

The cause of the fire is still to be investigated by SFRS and Police Scotland.