Meadowbank blaze

We all trooped out to look at new tiles for the kitchen when we saw this plume of smoke over Edinburgh. It was really close to where we needed to go, so we walked around the corner to have a look and WOW what a fire.
Edinburgh is getting hundreds of new apartments built in every bit of available space - this was a new block nearing completion.

When we arrived ithe fire was only the right side of the building at the lower floors. It spread so fast as it was fanned by the wind. Up it went floor by floor and took out the new 7th floor penthouse apartment in about 2 mins. The scaffolding and planks were tumbling down like feathers. The flames sounded like bacon sizzling on a BBQ.
We watched as the windows smoked up and then exploded out of the building followed by shooting flames. It was spectacular

By this point the fire and rescue teams were having a hard job controlling the fire and one of the crew went up the crane to oversee the site. - What a guy!

I have taken loads of close up blips with the flames and it was like a scene out of the film Backdraft
Don't worry - we were in a safe place in a nearby park behind the perimeter wall!

My heart went out to one guy standing beside us who was being consoled by a friend as he had just bought one of the new flats - he looked distraught.

Slightly ironic was the sign at the right side of the building which stated "thank you for visiting our development"
A personal thanks to the fire crews I think!

We went home thereafter stinking of smoke!