Glasgow mourns the loss of a city landmark today following a fire which ripped through the Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art late last night.
Some 120 firefighters tackled the blaze at its peak, but as the last of the embers are dampened down today, reports are that the building suffered ‘extensive damage’ - as seen in footage obtained by Glasgow Live this morning.
The major fire was reported around 11.20pm last night and soon spread to neighbouring buildings, including nightclubs Campus and the O2 ABC, both significantly damaged too.
But the Art School building being seen ablaze was a double blow for many Glaswegians - because it’s the second time in four years.
The building suffered terrible damage in May 2014, when a projector ignited gases from expanding foam used in a student project.
The flammable gases from a foam canister caught fire when they came into contact with the electrical equipment as work was being carried out on a nearby art installation.
The projector was not faulty, but the presence of original ventilation ducts and a large number of timber-lined walls in the building contributed to the rapid spread of the fire, the report concluded when it was published in November 2014.
A new fire suppression system was in the latter stages of completion at the institution, but was not yet fully commissioned and working on the day of the blaze.
Speaking at the time, the GSA director Professor Tom Inns said: "The fire was an accident and, like any accident, it's caused by many different factors coming together and conspiring against us on the day.
"The report is very detailed about how the fire spread round the building and that gives us a lot of new knowledge that we need to take on board."
The building has been undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment since then, with work due for completion in February 2019.
Following the 2014 fire, the school described itself as "custodians of an iconic piece of world architectural heritage" with a responsibility to restore it for students and staff.
The blaze caused significant damage to the west wing, including the loss of the celebrated Mackintosh Library, and the first stage of the restoration was to fit a temporary roof over the site.
A full-scale model of part of the library was later built to test if the original materials and techniques from Mackintosh's 19th century design could be used in its reconstruction.
The specifications for the model bay were developed with "meticulous research" into every aspect of the original design and construction of the library held in the GSA archives and the original drawings in the Hunterian Museum.
To rebuild the wooden library, the restoration team sourced wood from the US which was the same age as that used in Mackintosh's 19th century design.
Keir Construction were managing the project with the design led by Page\Park Architects.
The first phase saw outer work with damaged stonework repaired and the roof replaced before the delicate process of restoring the west wing and upgrading the east wing interiors began last year.
Glasgow MP Paul Sweeney described it as "the most architecturally important building in Glasgow".
He tweeted: "The Mack restoration project, led by pagepark and others, has been an incredibly innovative effort to restore Mackintosh's masterpiece to life.
"I can only hope that the skills developed on it since 2014 will help to overcome this horrific setback. We cannot lose this building.
"The 2014 fire destroyed around 20% of the western wing of the building - a later extension completed in 1909, containing the spectacular library - with a further 30% smoke damaged. This fire appears to be much more extensive and affects the 1899 eastern wing of the building."