FIREFIGHTERS were last night forced to abandon fighting a building site blaze in Edinburgh because of fears a tower crane could collapse.

One part of the partially built block of flats had already caved in, a fire brigade spokeswoman said.
Fire fighters were called to the seven storey property at Albion Gardens on Easter Road at 4pm yesterday. No one was injured and no one was believed to have been trapped within the site. Police, however, evacuated neighbouring flats as a precaution.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade said: “Firefighting operations have ceased due to the potential collapse of a tower crane.”

Some photographs by Andy Cook here - fire

Better watch or they’ll need to dredge out the dredging boat. This was very close to going under!

Picture shows the Land & Water tug boat Scaup. Also working nearby were the tugs Amity and Dignity

This picture was taken at the junction of Castle Terrace and Johnston terrace. As you can see from the photo, there’s a sign indicating the road is closed to all but bikes, busses and taxi’s. You can also just see abouve the van is a red no entry sign.

So what is this van? Certianly not a bike, nor a taxi, so maybee it’s a bus?

Are JB Foods now running a bus service up Johnston Terrace? Wonder what route number it is?

This sign is located at the bottom of Baberton Loan in Juniper Green. As you can see the sign says that the Water of Lieth Walkway is cosed on the 4/2/08.

As the date wasn’t the 4th of February I continued on along the walkway for about half a mile. This was the view I was met with.

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The footpath is totally impassible at Veitches Bridge. By the looks of it the bridge isn’t actually there anymore - just scafolding. Unfortunatly this meant I had to walk all the way back to Baberton Loan - another half mile.

I found this bit of wood lying on the ground there. It’s the diversion route for when the bridge is closed. Reading the information the bridge is actually closed for 10 weeks - not one day as the sign says. Acording to the sign the bridge is being completely refurbished.

The diversion route involves 2 very steep roads up to Lanark Road, and the footpath along the south side of the road is only about 50cm wide. Hardly safe on such a busy road.

Also interesting on the first sign is the bit that says “(date” - and you can just see the right bracket has been removed. It looks like somebody in Edinburgh Councils sign department thought it would be funny. The “4/2/08″ has been added afterwords. These signs are all over Lanark road so it must have taken some time to go round amending the signs.

The photo shows a high sided transit van with a roof rack on it. On top of the roof rack there’s a ladder propped up on an adjacent sign. There’s one man standing on the roof rack, and another half way up the ladders.

The photo was taken just out side Ocean Terminal shopping centre, Leith, Edinburgh. The sign is owned by the shopping centre. The van belongs to Baillie Signs, one of Edinburgh’s largest sign manufacturers and installers.

I’m no health and safety expert, but this looks rather dangerous to me.

Capital Collections
a choice of images from the collections of Edinburgh City Libraries and Information Services. Whether you are researching your family tree or doing a school project, you can discover the historical and cultural life of Edinburgh, Scotland and the Scots through this growing image library which includes a wonderful selection of photographs, drawings, watercolours and engravings.

This is a picture of team work at a large Edinburgh bank

Flickr Photo Download: Ship or shore?

Halcrow

Fat Sams nightclub - half demolished - a photoset on Flickr
Some excelent photos of the demolition of Fat Sam’s in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. Fat Sams was on the site of the former Edinburgh Meat Market.

The site also had the nightclub “The Ark”