A BUCKIE BLAZE that left a man hospitalised has sparked a police investigation with the circumstances being described as ‘suspicious’.
Fire broke out on a ground-floor flat in Low Street in the early hours of Saturday morning, when fire and rescue service crews from the local station and nearby Cullen were called at around 2am.
A man received treatment for smoke inhalation at the scene and was later taken to Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin. It took fire crews around 40 minutes to bring the blaze under control – and last night a police spokeswoman confirmed that investigations into the cause have been ongoing since.
“The Fire Service asked us to attend the property to secure it in the early hours of Saturday morning,” the spokeswoman said, adding: “It has since been discovered that there will be a joint investigation into the fire due to suspicious circumstances. The Fire Service will be leading on that and we will assist.”
A Fire and Rescue Service investigation team remained at the scene on Saturday while the condition of the man who was injured remained unknown.
A spokesman for the Fire Service said that they were initially called to the blaze at 2.02am and the final crew left the scene at 4.19am.
He added: “Fire fighters used two sets of breathing apparatus, a thermal camera and a hose reel to extinguish the fire, which was contained in a ground-floor flat.
“One casualty was taken to hospital and our fire investigation team began work on determining what caused it on Saturday morning.”