A Fife father has described how he went into a “blind panic” as he tried to guide his children out of a smoke filled stairwell.
Kevin Driske led teenage twins Elbereth and Malach, 13, and their older brother Zander, 15, to safety after a fire at council flats in Dunfermline belched out thick black smoke.
“My first instinct was to get everyone out of the flat,” said Kevin, who lives on the top floor of the four storey block in Gilfillan Road.
“The smoke was so thick we couldn’t see anything so we used phones to guide our way.”
The 47-year-old said they thought they had reached the ground floor but, disorientated by the smoke, they had only reached the second.
“There was a blind panic,” he said.
They managed to find their own way out of the building.
However, Kevin decided to go back.
He added: “I was silly. I decided to go back and get the cat out.”
The drama unfolded at around 8.45pm on Saturday, when an electrical box in a cupboard on the ground floor of the block caught fire.
One of Kevin’s children alerted him to the smell of smoke.
“I went to the front door and opened it. Smoke was billowing up the stairwell, thick smoke.”
Kevin and his three children were taken by ambulance to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy for precautionary checks. It is understood a nine-year-old girl from another family was also taken to hospital as a precaution.
He said his blood pressure was “through the roof” when he was looked over by paramedics at the scene.
“Fight or flight was kicking in.”
On Sunday morning engineers arrived and removed the charred remains of the electricity box.
The cupboard which had contained the box was blackened by soot.
There was no electricity supply to the building while engineers worked at the scene and many residents left their homes.
Kevin said Fife Council had informed him that the electricity supply to the flats should be restored early this week.
He said there had been signs that something was wrong with the building’s electrics earlier in the day.
“Through the day, a couple of times the electricity had flicked off and flicked on again.
“All of a sudden it started flickering then went off completely.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “Three males and two females were checked over by the ambulance service at the scene for smoke inhalation.
“They were taken to Victoria Hospital for a precautionary check up.”
