WE TAKE a look at the stories making headlines in East Lothian 25, 50 and 100 years ago.

25 years ago

FIREFIGHTERS were called out to rescue man’s best friend, reported the East Lothian Courier on April 17, 1998.

A puppy whose bid for freedom went wrong had to be rescued by firefighters on Easter Sunday.

The over-adventurous animal had been playing in a garden at Bridge Street, Tranent, when it became wedged between two bars of an iron gate.

The animal’s distraught owners tried to free the pup but realised that their pet was stuck fast and would need to be rescued by professionals.

A tender from Tranent responded to the emergency, but, on arrival at the scene, firefighters quickly realised that the delicate operation of freeing the puppy would require specialised cutting equipment.

They requested the heavy rescue tender from Newcraighall fire station.

Using cutting equipment more commonly used to free injured people after car accidents, firefighters quickly freed the tiny pup, to the delight of the owners.

The puppy was uninjured in the incident.

... and 50 years ago

FIVE-HUNDRED tonnes of straw destroyed by fire made the headlines in the East Lothian Courier on April 20, 1973.

A 500-tonne stack of barley feeding straw was destroyed by fire at Newtonlees Farm, Dunbar, on Monday.

Fire tenders from Haddington, Dunbar, East Linton and North Berwick prevented the blaze from spreading to the nearby steading.

The fire is believed to have started in a corrugated iron shed used as a garage by the occupant of a nearby farm cottage and then spread to the stack by the way of the dry grass between them.

The firemen had to use about 50 lengths of hose and pump water from the burn near the Broxburn Garage about a mile away.

Mr Alex Taylor, the owner of the stack, said a quantity of fertiliser in bags had also been lost in the blaze.

... and 100 years ago

CONCERNS were raised about the number of injuries and deaths at Cockenzie’s coal bings, told The Haddingtonshire Courier on April 20, 1923.

The number of casualties – some of them serious, some fatal, many painful and lasting – that have occurred on the local coal refuse bings draws attention to a dangerous practice.

There is moving machinery on top of the bings with running hutches.

More dangerous still is the possibility that an innocent-looking surface may mask a glowing furnace which in dark of night is shown as a blazing incandescent.

At these warm spots, or close to them, at night people often lie, neglectful that a sudden change of wind may endanger their lives.