Residents watched helplessly in the early hours of this morning as firefighters battled to save their homes during the major overnight blaze in Dundee.
They stood in small clutches, many wearing only their pyjamas, trying to stay warm, as the Garland Place blaze took hold.
Paul Burnett (27), from number 7, watched anxiously to see if the flames would spread down the block. He was roused by a ”ruckus” in the close, as fire engines poured into his street.
He said: ”We’re the top-floor flat. I’m not sure who chapped on our door, whether it was the fireys or not. There was a big ruckus in the close.
”We just thought it was an idiot chapping on the doors. The police have said you can go round to headquarters and they will radio over when you can get back in but I would rather watch it for myself.”
Out on the road four students watched in horror, and begged the policeman manning the cordon to get someone to rescue their five-month-old kitten Jax.Click here for a full photo galleryLaura Hutt said they had only popped out to the shop when a worried friend from the basement flat sent them a text to make sure they were not trapped in the building.
”We went out about 10pm,” she said. ”We must have been all of 20 minutes. Our friend texted to see if we were out.”
Fighting back the tears, her flatmate Rachel Blake added: ”Our cat is in the flat. He’s a five-month-old kitten. He’s so little.
”Seeing flames jumping out of the roof two hours after it started is obviously worrying. We’ve been told to go get somewhere to stay for heat.”
Their flatmates Ross Howard and Fraser McDonald started ringing round friends to beg a bed as it looked increasing like firefighters would be battling the blaze well into the early morning.
Another man from a ground-floor flat arrived home to find his home alight.
”I’ve just arrived,” he said. ”I’ve just got to watch to see if I can get in.”
Second photo courtesy of Dylan Drummond on Facebook