An 82-year-old man who died following an early-morning blaze at his Dundee home has been named by police.
Former freelance artist George Martin was pulled from his cottage in Mains Loan by firefighters on Monday morning but he was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. The alarm had been raised by a passing taxi driver around 4.15am.
Mr Martin was a former freelance illustrator and his work featured in many DC Thomson publications, including People’s Friend, My Weekly, Bunty and Mandy.
He lived alone at the property and is understood to have no immediate next of kin.
Investigations into the cause of the blaze have been continuing, with fire crews and police resuming their search of the building’s charred interior.
Tayside Fire and Rescue group manager Rab Middlemiss said it appears the fire started in one of the downstairs rooms.
“The investigation is focusing on the room with the most fire damage,” he said. “The crews have returned and will be trying to eliminate and identify various potential ignition sources to come to the best conclusion they can. They will analyse these findings in co-ordination with our colleagues from Tayside Police.”
Mr Middlemiss said officers had used thermal imaging cameras to identify any remaining “hot spots” on the ground floor of the cottage.
“The amount of smoke would suggest it was a slow-burning fire and there was a substantial amount of heat in one of the ground-floor rooms,” he said. “There is a fine line between a fire developing and becoming fully involved and it can be a matter of minutes, so we will be looking at all the various circumstances.”
Fire crews had raced to the detached cottage after a passing taxi driver saw smoke coming from the building and contacted the emergency services.
Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used two hose reels to put out the flames and removed Mr Martin from the property but paramedics were unable to save him.