Lanark Road fire: Nursery bosses say 'all staff and children are safe' after fire

In an update to parents and guardians, the nursery has said that no one was injured in a fire in the main building on Wednesday morning.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirm that they were called to Lanark Road Nursery to deal with a fire in their roof space.

They received the call at 7.19am on Wednesday, and six appliances were dispatched after smoke was seen billowing from the building.

Police Scotland have been requested to attend to aid with traffic management and have asked motorists to stay away from the area as the road is closed.

Lothian has reported a disruption to services with bus number 44 being “diverted via Wester Hailes Road, Clovenstone Road, Hailesland Road, Murrayburn Road, Longstone Road and Inglis Green Road in both directions till further notice.”

Andrew Johnston, Tory councillor for Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart, said parents had just been arriving at the nursery to drop off their children but he did not think there had been any children in the building when the fire broke out.

"Thankfully no-one has been hurt, I don't think, but it's obviously a huge blow to the community that rely on the nursery.

"Parents are standing out side not knowing what to do - so many of them will now not be able to go to work because their children would be getting looked after.

Emergency services deal with fire at Edinburgh nursery.

"The parents say they are just thankful no children have been hurt, but by the sale of the blaze they don't think the building will be salvageable."

Onlooker Roxanne Kinnear said: "I was stopped in traffic coming back from the gym and saw this huge cloud of smoke coming from the nursery. There were a lot of fire people at work tackling it.

"I know a few mums with children there and they had luckily had an email confirming the nursery was closed due to the fire and that no one was hurt, which is such a relief as it could have been devastating."

A message sent to parent confirmed that no one had been hurt in the fire and that the staff and the children were all safe. They add that the nursery will remain closed throughout the day.

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