Guests led to safety as fire wrecks hostel
MORE than 25 people had to be helped to safety after fire ripped through a city guest house and homeless shelter.
The blaze broke out in an electrical cupboard at the Abbott’s Guest House on Links Place in Leith just after midnight.
Most of the guests were asleep and were woken by the alarm and the shouts of the two night managers.
The fire left 12 bedrooms badly charred and the roof burnt off the single-storey extension. Today, the night manager heroes told of their horror as they evacuated the guests but on doing a head count realised there was still a deaf guest left inside.
Night manager Jim Ritchie, 67, was in a deep sleep when he heard the alarm and leapt from his bed. He said: “I got up and ran. There were flashes from the electrical cupboard downstairs.
“Someone lifted the water fire extinguisher in a blind panic. I knew you couldn’t put them on an electrical fire so I grabbed it and ordered everyone out.”
Mr Ritchie lined guests up across the road, aided by fellow worker Ian White, 58.
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