Smoke was pouring from the ground floor of a four-storey Union Street building at about 15:45 on Sunday. Within hours the front wall had come down, flames had reached the corner dome, and Scotland’s busiest railway station was shut.
The fire began in a vape shop beside a side entrance to Glasgow Central. Six crews from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) went in first. As the evening wore on the blaze got worse, and the number of fire vehicles on scene rose to 18. Nobody was reported hurt.
A Victorian landmark lost
The building is known as Union Corner and sits at the junction of Union Street and Gordon Street. It dates to 1851, which makes it older than the station, opened in 1879. The BBC described it as a B-listed Victorian structure.
Firefighters kept the flames out of the station itself. Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken singled out the crews for that. “A lot of people don’t realise that in these old buildings, no floor is the same, so it was an enormous challenge for them,” she said. “The city owes them a debt of thanks. It could have been so much worse.”
By Monday the SFRS had cut its response to eight engines, three of them high-reach vehicles. Crews were cooling hotspots in the stonework and helping structural engineers judge whether what remains of the building is stable. A preliminary multi-agency investigation into the cause has begun. Assistant Chief Officer David Farries said it needs to establish “why the fire spread the way that it did.”
Days of disruption
Network Rail said the station escaped significant damage but would stay shut on Tuesday for safety inspections. ScotRail’s chief operating officer, David Ross, told BBC Scotland News: “There won’t be any services tomorrow, and disruption will continue for several days.” He asked passengers to check the ScotRail website and app, and to be patient with staff working “in very difficult circumstances.”
Low-level trains will pass through without stopping, calling at nearby Argyle Street and Anderston instead. A limited number of replacement buses will run for some services. Network Rail would not give a reopening date until crews can get inside to carry out checks.
Other operators adjusted too. Avanti West Coast let passengers use their tickets on LNER trains between Edinburgh and London King’s Cross at no extra charge. TransPennine Express cancelled its Monday services between Glasgow Central and both Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Airport.
Police Scotland kept several roads closed around Union Street and the station, among them West Nile Street southbound from Bath Street and Broomielaw between Oswald Street and Jamaica Street. Union Street is a main drop-off point for city centre passengers.
Political reaction
First Minister John Swinney called it a “very serious fire” and said he was relieved nobody was injured. He warned of a “significant cost” and said the Scottish government would back Glasgow City Council financially so the city centre can get “up-and-running as quickly as we can.”
The rail union TSSA also weighed in. General secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said it was “terribly sad to see such an iconic part of Glasgow city centre destroyed by fire” and called for a thorough inquiry into the cause.
Sources
Sources
- Glasgow Central: Days of disruption as station closed after fire … – BBC
- Union Street fire – Wikipedia
