A CROSSFORD family thanked brave staff at the Keavil House Hotel after a lucky escape when a fire broke out at their home early on Tuesday.

Pamela Abbott, in the house with her six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son, said the quick actions of night porter Douglas Cross and assistant manager Craig Colligan may have saved their lives.

The men had responded to two other fires that had been set on the adjacent hotel premises around 4am when they heard a “crackling noise” and saw the Abbott’s detached garage on Western Avenue engulfed in flames.

They raised the alarm and rushed to alert the family, with firefighters arriving to find the garage well alight.

Solicitor Pamela (32) was home with the kids as husband Paul was working the night shift at Shell Mossmorran, when she heard noises on the roof around 4am.

She recalled, “I thought it was possibly someone trying to break in. I went to check on the kids and went back to my room.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to do next, then I heard banging on the front window, and I knew something was up. The manager was there with the fire brigade and said the garage was on fire.” Pamela remained calm and asked for help to get the kids and dog out of the house.

She continued, “They did a great job. It was a big fire but I didn’t spend any time dwelling on it.

“I just wanted to get them out and just be normal with them and reassure them, I didn’t really focus on what was happening.

“They took us to the hotel, sat us in the lounge, gave us a glass of water and asked if we needed anything else, then one of our neighbours came over and said we could stay at their house.” She praised Douglas and Craig, saying, “Their quick action saved our house and possibly us.

“The garage is completely destroyed but I’m just thankful that the family is fine and that we have all these good people around us. That’s what I want to take from it.” Paul, an operations technician, raced home as soon as he got the phone call from Pamela.

He said, “I was panicking. I’m in an emergency response room myself and I called my boss to get cover because I needed to leave now.

“I thought it was just kids lighting small fires but then I got there and saw the extent of the damage.

“The fire incident commander told me it was just minutes away from the house catching fire.

“The gable end of the house is just metres from the garage and we were extremely lucky.

“All the bedrooms are on that side of the house and you can see where the flames have blackened it.

“I’m really thankful to the night porter and manager. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t want to think about what could possibly have happened.” Night porter Douglas had initially spotted flames in the hotel’s bin area on CCTV around 4am, which led to the family being rescued.

The flames spread to the wooden fence and when Douglas and Craig rushed to put it out, they found another fire had been lit in the kids’ area of the hotel’s leisure club.

BEST WESTERN PLUS Keavil House Hotel general manager Alistair Bruce told the Press, “As far as I know, there was a fire set in our bin area and that caused the fence to catch fire.

“They then went to our leisure club children’s play area and set fire to one of the kids’ toys.

“Our night porter managed to see the fire on CCTV – thank God because the bin area is next to the Elgin Suite and and it could have spread.

“Thanks to the quick actions of our night porter and assistant manager they were put out before the fire service arrived.

“They then heard a crackling noise and went to the front of the hotel and saw a detached garage on fire.” Deputy manager Craig said he and Douglas were “just doing what needed to be done”.

He said, “Neither of us were really thinking about it, we were just getting on with it.

“There’s no way either of us would have just sat back and done nothing.

“The main thing was just getting them out of the house, the garage was fairly well lit by then.

“The fact that they had young kids in there just escalated it.” The fires were among four incidents in Crossford on Tuesday morning, all occurring within a space of two hours. There was also a rubbish fire on Cairneyhill Road at 3.22am.

Sergeant Brian Henderson, of Dunfermline police station, said, “We’re working with the fire service and enquiries are ongoing to establish if there are connections between the incidents.

“Investigations are in an early stage and we cannot confirm if there is a link at this time.”