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Child thrown to safety from flat Child thrown to safety from flat
(about 9 hours later)
A child has been thrown to safety after fire broke out in a flat in West Lothian in the early hours of Friday. A mother has told how she was forced to throw her eight-month-old baby out of a first floor window as a fire threatened to rip through her West Lothian home.
It is understood the blaze broke out in a rubbish bin area in Glendevon Park in Winchburgh, near Broxburn. Lena Erskine, 36, and her three children were trapped by thick smoke after a communal bin area caught fire at their home in Winchburgh.
The emergency services were alerted just before 0100 GMT and a family brought to safety a short time later. Manny, 14, and Zeeshan, 16, were able to jump to safety, but Lena had to drop baby Mackenzie to a neighbour.
Fire officers said emergency operators successfully instructed the family on how to safely escape the flat. Police said no one needed hospital treatment. The blaze broke out about 0100 GMT on Friday in a bin area in Glendevon Park.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said the fire was in the stairwell's bin store. Speaking from her smoke-damaged home, Lena thanked her hero neighbour for helping her family get out.
He said: "We are treating this incident very seriously. This was a totally irresponsible thing for anyone to do that could have resulted in tragic circumstances. I was so worried, but I knew I just had to get my baby out of there Lena Erskine She said: "Without Shane's help I dread to think what could have happened. Thanks to him everyone is alright and my family are all fine.
"We would appeal to anyone that knows who is responsible for setting the fires or to anyone who saw anyone acting suspiciously to contact the police". "My flat is right above the bin area and I heard a crackling sound just before 0100 GMT. I opened my front door but was forced back by thick black smoke.
"I started to panic because I knew we couldn't get down the stairs and we were all trapped.
"I got all the kids up and herded them to the back of the house. We shouted for help and Manny and Zeeshan managed to jump down onto my neighbours hut but I then realised I had no choice but to drop Mackenzie out.
"I was so worried, but I knew I just had to get my baby out of there."
'Very serious'
Luckily for the family, their neighbour had been alerted to the family's shouts for help and clambered onto his shed roof in time to catch the baby.
Lena, a door steward in West Lothian, said: "I thank God Shane was there to help us because I don't know what I would have done without him. He really is a bit of a hero."
The mum-of-three also had to lower her Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross Jade into Shane's arms, but was forced to leave her cat and two cockatiels in the house as she made her own escape.
Fortunately all the animals survived but the family home has been damaged by the smoke.
A West Lothian police spokesman said "We are treating this incident very seriously. This was a totally irresponsible thing for anyone to do that could have resulted in tragic circumstances.
"We would appeal to anyone that knows who is responsible for setting the fires or to anyone who saw anyone acting suspiciously to contact the Police."