Dad rescues two sons after fire
Published: August 1, 2007
FAMILIES fled for their lives after a fire erupted at a fast food shop in a busy town centre street.
As choking smoke began engulfing the lower part of the two-storey building one dad rushed to his top-floor flat to rescue his two young sons.
Then he bravely tried to help the shop owner tackle the rapidly spreading flames, but the determined efforts of both men were in vain.
When more than 20 firefighters arrived everyone in the building was safely out and sheltering in a neighbour’s shop across the street.
The blaze erupted in a rear extension at Tsang’s Kitchen takeaway business in High Street, Johnstone.
At the height of the fierce outbreak flames were shooting through the kitchen roof at the back of the shop.
It’s thought the blaze started in an extractor flue.
Mum Mhairi Wylie lives in a top floor flat above the shop with her husband William and two boys William, aged 14, and nine-year-old Sam.
She said: “The boys were at home and my husband was in the back garden cutting the grass.
“When he spotted smoke coming from the back of the shop he dashed upstairs to get the children and get them outside. By that time a few other people in their flats were out too.”
Mhairi, 35, who runs the Magic Happens gift shop across the road from the fire, added: “Once everyone was out my husband went to try to help the owner of the burning takeaway business.
“But by that time flames and smoke at the back of the takeaway were really bad. William had to coax the shop owner out before things got any worse.”
She added: “The fire and smoke damage to the takeaway is extensive. Firefighters were at the scene from the back of 4pm on Tuesday until about 9.30pm that night. The road was blocked off and traffic diverted.
One man who stays in a first floor flat immediately above the fire-ravaged shop kitchen said: “I was shocked to see the damage to my back bedroom.
“The fire was so fierce it’s burned a 6ft wide hole in the floor. You can see right through to the shop floor below.
“The flat is very smoke-damaged, goodness knows what the repair costs will be.”
Firefighters had to cut away the roof of the shop kitchen to make sure the flames were out.
It’s thought the overall damage will run into tens of thousands of pounds.
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