Baby 'stable' after fatal fire

The deaths have shocked local residents

The condition of a baby who was injured a house fire which left his mother and three brothers dead has improved.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh said four-month-old Jamie McClung was now in a stable condition.

He was taken to the hospital's intensive care unit in a critical condition following the fire, in the early hours of Friday, at the family's end terrace house in Bathgate, West Lothian.

Jamie's mother, 28-year-old Paula McClung, died at the scene while three of her sons - David Berry, aged nine, Allan Berry, seven, and 17-month-old Josh McClung - died later in hospital.

A police investigation into the fire was continuing amid fears it may have been started deliberately.

Our thoughts are obviously with the family during this tragic episode Detective Superintendent Ian Ross

On Saturday, a spokesman for the Lothian and Borders force said: "There were investigators in the house all day yesterday.

"They have taken away material to be analysed and there will also be officers going through the house today as well to see if there's anything there which could help them.

"There will be more house-to-house inquiries today."

Detective Superintendent Ian Ross, of Lothian and Borders Police, said officers were "keeping an open mind" regarding the incident.

"Our thoughts are obviously with the family during this tragic episode and we have trained family liaison officers with them.

Forensic teams

"Obviously this whole community will also be shocked and I would appeal to them that if they have any information regarding this, anything they think is relevant, they should contact the police at Livingston."

He added: "We have a lot of inquiries to complete.

"Obviously the forensic teams are going through the house to identify possible causes of the fire.

"In addition to that we obviously have a number of victims and we will be awaiting the results of the post-mortems."