Teachers escort students to class following fire near Edinburgh primary school

TEACHERS have escorted pupils into classrooms at a Capital primary school after fire crews were forced to battle a blaze just yards from the playground over the weekend.

Fire crews arrived to tackle the blaze at around 3:45pm on Sunday.

Emergency services were scrambled to Gilmerton Primary School shortly after 3.45pm on Sunday afternoon after a fire broke out in two industrial skips next to the school’s fence.

Crews spent more than an hour tackling the blaze, which saw two containers filled with building insulation material go up in smoke.

Construction work is currently going on at the site.

Firefighters could be seen climbing scaffolding within the school to tackle flames from above.

However, the school opened as normal on Monday morning with teachers personally escorting younger pupils into the classroom to start the day.

A Tweet from the school on Sunday evening read: "You may be aware that this afternoon there was an incident of an isolated fire outwith the school building. Fire Services were in attendance and following safety checks we are happy to share that school will open as normal tomorrow morning."

It continued: "Primary 1/Primary 2 teachers will be in the playground to greet classes and escort them to their classroom. The children will not have access to the site of the fire at any point in the school day.

"Learning and teaching will continue as normal for our Gilmerton learners."

A spokesperson for the Fire Service said: “We were alerted at 3.46pm to reports of a fire near Gilmerton Primary School in Edinburgh.

“Operations Control mobilised four fire engines to the city’s Moredun Dykes Road, where firefighters were met by a fire which had taken hold of pieces of building insulation located within two industrial skips.

“There are no casualties."