A firefighter told a trial how he plunged into the basement of a burning Dundee tenement after a set of stairs gave way under his feet.
A court heard that “distressed” residents of the Garland Place block were plucked by fire crews to safety from the windows of upper floors during the late-night inferno which destroyed the entire top part of the building.
One resident told the trial of the man accused of starting the fire that his dog had perished in the blaze after he fled down a ladder from his smoke-filled top-floor property.
Brian Martin denies wilfully setting fire to the tenement in Garland Place in April 2012.
Firefighter James Ingram, 31, told the opening day of Martin’s trial at Dundee Sheriff Court that he and a colleague had entered the building with a hosereel and attempted to go to the basement.
He said: “Some of the stairs gave way and I fell into the basement below. It was about eight to 10 feet. I landed on my chest. I got to my feet and it was fairly dark and visibility was poor.”
The court heard that he was treated for a shoulder injury as a result of the incident and was off work for six weeks.
Top floor resident Alan Thomson, 65, said he had smelled smoke at around 10.30pm and when he pulled out a wall plug, smoke poured out of the socket.
He said: “I knew it was really serious. I went to the living room and closed the door. I looked out the window and heard people shouting. The neighbours were panicking.”
“I could hardly breathe.”
Mr Thomson said fire crews put a ladder to his window and one of his dogs “took off” to another part of the living room.
He said: “There was not a thing I could do. They ordered me onto the ladder. They said they’d come back. I was really panicking.”
Fire and rescue watch manager Blair Fletcher, 46, told the trial that two fire engines had arrived at the building at around 10.30pm to find smoke pouring out of the common close and a number of “distressed” residents trapped inside.
Mr Fletcher said he was concerned about the possibility of casualties due to the “nature and extent” of the fire, which had started to spread through the roof space into the tenement next door.
Martin, 30, Salvation Army, Quayside Court, Inverness, denies willfully setting fire to the flooring at 14 Garland Place on April 25 2012, the result of which the wooden staircase within the common close and roof space were destroyed and the occupants were trapped within their homes to the danger of their lives.
He also denies setting fire to a mattress within the common close of a tenement in Union Street the following day.
The trial continues.