A MAN who died after a cigarette sparked a flat fire in Edinburgh this morning has been named as Grant Sutherland.
The 41-year-old, who was named by locals, perished in the fire in the city’s Niddrie Mill Drive, despite a smoke alarm being activated.
A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue said the blaze was in a top floor flat of a three storey building.
She added: “The property was heavily smoke logged. The cause was a careless use of a cigarette. The smoke alarm did activate, but it does not seem to have alerted the occupant.”
The blaze in the city’s Niddrie Mill Drive erupted at around 1.40am..
Today the flat, in a quiet Edinburgh street, bore no outward signs of the blaze.
Inside the building a large steel door stood in front of the entrance to the flat, but all signs of smoke had been cleaned away.
Neighbours were too upset to speak, but one indicated that Mr Sutherland had previously been burned in another small fire earlier in the year.
Sheena Ferguson, who runs a bakery opposite the flat, said “I’m heart broken, just devastated. I just spoke to him yesterday.
“I couldn’t say a bad word about him, a really nice lad. A nicer lad you couldn’t meet.
“I’m here at quarter to six in the morning and he used to come and help me.
“It’s a tragedy.”
