Teenager charged over Edinburgh fire chaos

It has been reported that a 15-year-old boy has been accused of trying to steal a fire appliance as crews battled to control a suspicious fire at a location in Edinburgh.

As firefighters attempted to put out the blaze at West Pilton Children’s Centre on Ferry Road at 1pm last Sunday, a gang of youngsters started to cause trouble which hampered their efforts.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said:

“The actions of these youngsters were totally unacceptable and could have had much more serious consequences.

“Crews had to put up with continued verbal abuse and were also pelted with missiles as they tried to get the fire under control.

“Fighting the fire, which had been deemed a chemical incident because of asbestos in the roof, was made much harder because of the unwanted attention and anti-social behaviour of a hard core of young people.”

The Lothian and Borders Police have now launched an investigation into the incident and as well as charging a 15-year-old with attempting to steal a fire engine, are now looking to find the other culprits of the attack on the fire crews.

The fire was eventually extinguished at about 5pm on Sunday evening.