Girls rescued from derelict mill

Crews were called to the Pagefield building following reports of smoke at around 7.30pm on Friday.

While the firefighters were combing the massive site for the blaze they found a girl who had got trapped in a room and was unable to find her way out.

She also told the crew two of her friends were missing after they had left her.

When all three, who are believed to be around 12 or 13 years old, were eventually found the firefighters tried to give them safety advice but they swore at them before running off.

The Bridgeman Terrace site has been plagued by trespassing and vandalism and has repeatedly been described as a “death trap”.

Following the latest incident firefighters are once again warning people to stay out due to the lethal state of the building.

Watch officer Isaac Olurankinse said: “The girl was stranded near the roof but she just couldn’t find her way out. The three of them had made their way into a room and the other two had left.

“Where she was had a timber floor with holes in it and maybe a 10ft drop. That area is so unsafe. Someone is going to break bones or get trapped in there.

“We tried to tell the girls about trespassing and advice them but they just gave us verbal abuse.

“We’d like to remind people that we do have CCTV on all our engines and it can identify people even at some distance.”

As well as removing the young girls from the building the crews also found the fire towards the rear of the site and extinguished the flames.

Two fire engines were at the scene for around 30 minutes.