‘PLEASE drink up. the pub is on fire’ was a headline in the East Lothian Courier on December 29, 1995. Time was called early at the Auld Hoose pub in North Berwick last Wednesday after a fire broke out in the public bar. Customers spotted smoke coming from the floor near a fireplace about 10pm and the local fire brigade was alerted. The premises were evacuated – including an upstairs flat occupied by Jean Borthwick and her Labrador dog, Freeway – as landlord Ian McMinn tried to tackle the blaze with a fire extinguisher containing powder. But help was soon at hand in the shape of his brother Hugh, a local fireman, and the rest of the retained crew who began fighting the dense smoke and flames.