Very sad news to wake up to this morning, that the Glasgow College of Art, the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building, has again been pretty much destroyed by a very serious fire. It was 9/10 of the way to being completely restored after a previous serious fire in May 2014, and due to re-open again soon. Local people have said that this latest fire was more serious even than the 2014 one, which was itself catastrophic, and this time it extended into the neighbouring cinema/music venue, the O2 ABC, where the roof has collapsed. "The Mack" as it was affectionately known to its students, alumni and other staff is also left as a mere shell with no roof. At this stage it is not known whether it can be saved again. Mercifully, there has been no loss of life.
Full credit to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service who worked through the night to contain the fire. No doubt they will carry our a thorough investigation as to the cause of this fire. There was to have been a sprinkler system installed as part of the restoration from 2014 but this had not yet been done, by various accounts. One of the factors identified in the previous fire's rapid spread was the fact that the internal structure of the building included so much timber.
And all this happening at a time when there were many celebrations going on of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh throughout the city of Glasgow and beyond. Many heavy hearts and a lot of sadness in Glasgow and Scotland generally today.