The quick actions of two men narrowly stopped a bin fire spreading to a Forfar petrol station.
The blaze broke out in bins next to the Shell garage on Queenswell Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with flames soon shooting towards the property’s roof.
Gavin Stewart spotted the fire while driving home from a dog walk shortly before 2am.
Forfar garage ’10 minutes’ from burning down
The 36-year-old called Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) but realised the blaze would spread to the petrol station if he did not act immediately.
With the help of another man passing by, Gavin sprung into action.
Gavin said: “I parked the car a bit away and then jumped out.
“The woman from the garage was rushing about, in a panic and not sure what to do so I helped her out then phoned the firies.
“They said to stay well back but I knew it would’ve taken them about 10 minutes to come.
“If we had left it another 10 minutes (the garage) would’ve been burnt down.
“We grabbed the fire extinguishers on the forecourt and just put it out ourselves.”
Shell garage closed on Wednesday morning
Gavin added: “It was going quite high and the building has quite a low roof.
“If we hadn’t stepped in the building would have caught fire.
“The woman working there managed to turn the pumps off so there wouldn’t have been any leaks, but we couldn’t take that chance.”
It is not yet known if the fire is being treated as deliberate.
Staff were able to reopen the garage at midday on Wednesday.
A Shell spokesperson said: “A member of public notified our staff of fire, our staff member shut down the pumps and called the fire brigade and a member of public grabbed a fire extinguisher and sand and extinguished the fire.”
A SFRS spokesperson said: “We were called to a bin fire in Forfar on Queenswell Road at 1.40am.
“Two appliances were in attendance and we received the stop call at 2.45am.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Officers were called to reports of a fire at a premises on Queenswell Road, Forfar at around 2.25am on Wednesday 20 July.
“Inquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”
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