Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Jon Brady

Glasgow fire hero helps mum and twin baby boys escape tower block blaze

A panic stricken mum and her twin baby boys fled to safety when a fire broke out in a Glasgow tower block.

Caren Ferguson described her terror as she negotiated 11 flights of stairs with her hero neighbour and her infant sons.

The drama unfolded when the blaze broke out in the floor below the 23-year-old's Springburn flat, the Daily Record reports.

The young mum was home alone with three month olds Noah and Freddie when a neighbour battered on her door to warn her about the fire below.

She explained: "One of my neighbours knocked on the door - I thought it was the health visitor - and said there was a fire on the floor below.

"I was panicking - I didn't know how to get the boys down the stairs. I could hear the alarms on the floor below from the hallway.

"He just said: 'There's a fire, we've got to go.'"

Worried about getting both boys out of the building, Caren's neighbour immediately offered to help.

She said: "He just said, 'Give me one', and I grabbed blankets and their milk because they were just in their vests.

"He went first, holding the fire doors open for me. Those stairs have never felt longer.

"I don't know how I would've gotten out without him. I don't even know his name."

Caren and her rescuer made their way down the stairs at the Fernbank Street high rise as firefighters rushed in to evacuate residents, in scenes she described as being like "something out of a movie".

He waited with the boys as she assembled a pram before she took the boys to stay with their gran, Glasgow Tory MSP Annie Wells.

Residents were allowed to return to the block late on Monday after fire officers gave the all-clear.

Caren says that she and the tots were unharmed after escaping the blaze - but joked that one was annoyed at having to wait an extra half hour for his bottle.

Tory MSP Annie said on Twitter of the fire: "This is the flats my two grandsons and their mum live in. They were just in the floor above.

"They managed to get down the 11 floors on foot and came to mine. Thankful no one was seriously injured."

A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: "We were alerted at 11.05am on Monday, April 25 to reports of a fire at a property at Fernbank Street, Glasgow.

"Operations Control mobilised four fire appliances and one height vehicle and firefighters extinguished a fire affecting a flat on the 10th floor of a multi-storey building.

"One casualty received treatment for slight smoke inhalation and crews have now left the scene."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.