An Edinburgh dentist managed to carry on treatment outside her surgery after an exploding lorry made it unsafe for her to continue insider her office. Dental surgeon Agnieska Nohawica was placing a filling when a lorry outside the Prestonpans Family Dental Care clinic exploded into a fireball; as dental surgeries have gas and compressed air on the premises, all staff and patients had to evacuate.
Agnieska explained that it was ‘bizarre’ seeing the huge fireball outside but added ‘I was in the middle of treatment and I couldn’t just leave the patient like that. Luckily, one of the other dentists had a portable kit so I was able to give her a temporary filling so it could be sorted.’
The patient, Brook Hitchin, 36, said that the whole situation was ‘a bit crazy – not the sort of thing you expect when you’re at the dentist.’ She went on to say ‘I was a bit concerned that we were not going to get back in the building and I was going to have to head home with a big hole in my tooth.’
One of the clinics partners, Charlie Crummy, described the scene to the Edinburgh Evening News, saying ‘There was a huge bang – a fireball and another puff of flames. My first instinct was to stay inside the building in case the thing blew up but the fire was right next to our plant room where our own gasses and compressed air are stored, so we had to evacuate the building.’
It is understood that the vehicle was being used to paint road lines and contained gas cylinders; firefighters took two hours to put out the blaze.