Five things you need to know today

Fire in London Road – Dangerous streets? – Comedy – Augmented reality – Peploe exhibition

A large fire in London Road last night has caused a great deal of damage to the building, but thankfully no injuries have been reported.

More than forty firefighters tackled the fire that broke out in a disused church. Fire Control received multiple calls from the public just before 5:00pm yesterday reporting plumes of thick black smoke coming from the vicinity of Lower London Road. Five fire appliances and supporting specialist vehicles were sent to the scene at the junction with Taylor Place.

They discovered the building well alight with fire through all floors of the building and breaking through the roof. Smoke could be seen for miles around.

Due to the fire engulfing the building firefighting operations were conducted from outside the church with two height platforms used as water towers to douse the flames.

Crews remained on site last night and once firefighting is complete and it is safe to do so, fire investigation will take place.

Until that time Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service say that they will not be able to determine the cause of the blaze.

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Edinburgh Guide puts forward their view that Edinburgh’s streets are about to become more dangerous as a result of the trams which will be running here from next year.

In Dublin where they have had trams known as the LUAS since 2004 there have been several serious incidents including (and this is not necessarily a comprehensive list) a death in 2008, a crash between a bus and a tram in 2009, a fatal collision in 2011 as well as other minor incidents. So far this year there have been several minor accidents in January when cars collided with the LUAS, but no serious injuries were reported. In Manchester just last week an elderly woman was struck by a tram and killed.

Some of the commentary on these accidents offers criticism on pedestrians and other road users. The Reporter witnesses many pedestrians in Edinburgh each day who cross streets when it does not appear absolutely safe to do so.

Should we introduce road awareness for pedestrians and vehicle drivers before we introduce the trams? Should it be an offence to cross when there is no green man? What do you think?

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Tonight the Edinburgh University Students Association is hosting Grassroots Comedy in the Pleasance Bar from 19:30pm. “Come and see them before they hit the big time!”

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We have been introducing you to our use of Aurasma over recent weeks. For those of you who have not read our earlier articles about this then here is what you need to know about our use of augmented reality

Download the Aurasma Lite app  which is available for iPhone or Android.

Follow The Edinburgh Reporter channel by using the search facility in the app.

Find our trigger images and use your phone to watch our added content automatically.

Today we have set up an Aura based on the green and white logo on the Starbucks cup. What will you see when you use your phone to trigger it…? This is not seen as any endorsement of Starbucks, but simply a way of using a fairly widely available image to trigger our augmented reality content….

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Today we suggest something for older children this half-term.  The Peploe Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is running until June. There are over 100 of his paintings on show, which is a fairly comprehensive introduction to the Scottish Colourists of which Peploe was one.

More details on the National Galleries website.