FIRE UPDATE: Resident tries to fight flames

A blaze was reported at just before 9am in a utility room used by the Living Room at Livingston’s in Linlithgow’s High Street after a washing machine tumble dryer caught fire on the ground floor.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service say three crews attended the incident and an investigation is under way.

Fire fighters managed to get the blaze under control by 9.46am, but two crews were still on the scene afterwards as police partially closed the road.

Alexander Woods, watch manager at Falkirk Fire Station, said: “This morning the service received a number of calls stating there was a fire at a premises in Linlithgow.

“As a consequence of that there were appliances mobilised from Bo’ness station, Falkirk station and one further appliance from Linlithgow.

“When crews arrived they found a fire in the rear of the building which after investigation later turned out to be a tumble dryer.

“Crews extinguished the fire using hose reel jet. There was a total of four fire servicemen wearing breathing apparatus. The fire was then extinguished and crews are now in the process of making fire investigation to ascertain the precise cause of the fire.

“Livingston’s restaurant isn’t in fact affected, this is a storage facility used by the restaurant.

“Staff are removing food stuff from the facility back into the restaurant.

“We’re not sure why the tumble dryer caught fire, that’s why we have asked the fire investigation to attend the incident.

“The building was empty when the fire started. The one flat directly above the building had one resident who came down and attempted to fight the fire with a fire extinguisher.

“There was no smoke ingress in any of the flats at all.”