Published: Wednesday, 22nd February, 2006 10:29
£1 million inferno
By Border Telegraph Newsroom
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POLICE are hunting for three teenagers after a luxury flat development was torched on Friday.
The £1 million apartments at Thistle Court were due for completion in May.
But the early-morning blaze on Friday has set builders back by months – and caused considerable damage to surrounding properties.
Detectives have scoured CCTV footage and carried out door-to-door enquiries in their search for the fire-starters.
But no arrests had yet been made as we went to press yesterday (Tuesday).
A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police told the Border Telegraph: “We are appealing for three youths who were seen watching the fire to come forward. They were seen in the area at the time of the fire by several people, and we want to eliminate them from our enquiries.
“We want to speak to anyone who was in the Thistle Street area at the time of the fire. They may have just been going home from a night out and passed by the area, but we still want to hear from them.”
Firefighters were called to Thistle Court just before 2am.
And it took five crews more than two hours to bring the blaze under control.
More than a dozen flats in neighbouring Stanley Street and Thistle Street were damaged as flames ripped into the night sky.
Residents anxiously moved their cars as fire teams battled the blaze.
Kenny Philip from Thistle Street said: “It was so hot, many windows across the street from the fire were cracking and smashing.
“My wife and I woke up at around 2am to hear crackling coming from across the street. When we looked out the building was in full blaze. It’s just fortunate nobody was hurt.”
Valhalla Developments were granted planning permission in December 2003 to build eleven luxury flats in a three-storey block on the site of a former sub-power station.
The bid attracted nine objections from neighbours.
But police confirmed they are not treating the objectors as suspects.
The two and three-bedroom apartments are advertised for sale at either £108,000 or £125,000 – and four have already been sold.
Joe Aldamo from Valhalla Developments told us: “The builders are fully insured against fire, but I’m still in the dark about how we proceed.
“This is the first time anything like this has happened at one of my developments – and hopefully it will be the last.
“We will hopefully get things moving again pretty soon, but it will still have set us back a good few months.”
Anyone with information should contact Galashiels Police Station – a reward is being offered.
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