A firebug who started a blaze in a Dunfermline block of flats has been jailed for two years and seven months.
Samuel Craig previously pled guilty to wilfully setting fire to items in a drying and storage room at the property on Law Road on January 5 2022.
Occupants of the block were evacuated after it took hold of the building and contents, causing fire and smoke damage.
Craig, 30, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing.
Sheriff Susan Duff told him: “What you did was incredibly serious and seriously endangered lives of all the residents of that tower block.”
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said the fireraising case had been adjourned on a number of occasions to monitor Craig’s compliance with a drug treatment and testing order (DTTO).
It had been imposed after Craig injured his mother by throwing a knife at her at a property in Broomhead Drive, Dunfermline, in April 2021, which he admitted was culpable and reckless conduct.
The solicitor acknowledged the DTTO was breached and Craig, formerly of Denfield Avenue, Cardenden, had also breached a condition not to enter Dunfermline.
He said Craig had been struggling living on his own and away from family and social support, leading to more chaotic drug misuse and the inevitable breach of his DTTO.
He said a social work report contained reservations about his client’s ability to comply with court orders.
Sheriff Duff told Craig he had reached the stage where there was no alternative to a custodial sentence and jailed him for a total of 31 months, backdated to January 26 when he was remanded.
She sentenced him to 27 months for the wilful fireraising and four months for the knife offence.
He was also sentenced to eight months for the breach of bail but this will run concurrently to the 27-month term.
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