Eight firefighters who were called to tackle a blaze in which a 21-year-old woman died are facing charges of neglect at a disciplinary tribunal.

The men were formally charged after a senior officer from another brigade carried out a full investigation in their actions on the night of the fire in Dundee in 1997.

Victim Amanda Duncan was found dead in her tenement flat in Cardean Street, Dundee, in November 1997.

A former psychiatric patient, Colin Crabb, who lived on the ground floor, received a 10 year jail sentence for deliberately starting the fire.

At the fatal accident inquiry which followed, Sheriff Richard Davidson criticised the conduct of officers fighting the fire and evidence given by some of them at a fatal accident inquiry.

The disciplinary hearing begins in Perth on Monday and if the men are found guilty they could face dismissal from the fire brigade.

At the end of last week a judge refused to grant an order preventing the disciplinary hearing from going ahead.

Prejudice claim

The firefighters had sought an interim interdict at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in which they claimed that the hearing might prejudice any criminal proceedings which could follow from the case.

But Lord Bonomy said in his decision: "In the absence of any proceedings it is not possible to identify a real risk of injustice. Any risk is entirely notional and speculative.

"Even if the proceedings were in public and were to be reported there is no reason to think that in this case, as distinct from other criminal cases, the jury could not be relied upon to reach a verdict on the evidence presented to them in the light of directions given to them by the trial judge."

Four members of the group are under investigation by the procurator fiscal and could face criminal prosecution for alleged perjury at the FAI.