Edinburgh fire: Firefighters rush to building site near Boroughmuir High School to extinguish digger 'burning ferociously'

Fire crews were scrambled to an Edinburgh street, where a digger was burning opposite a local high school.

An Edinburgh local spotted firefighters tackling the blazing construction equipment on Tuesday afternoon, opposite Boroughmuir High School on Viewforth.

The eyewitness spotted heavy smoke as he was exiting a building on the street, shortly after 3.30pm. He then noticed that flames were coming from a JCB digger, located across the road from the school. He said: “It was burning ferociously. The flames were quite extreme and the smoke could be seen rising above the roofs of buildings nearby.”

Soon after the blaze was spotted, two fire appliances arrived on scene and crews began working to extinguish the flames. The eyewitness claimed it took firefighters around 10 to 15 minutes of hosing to put the fire out. Afterwards, he said: “You could taste the smoke in the air.”

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Police Scotland have been contacted for comment.