Fire risk threat for Fife's heritage buildings revealed

Firefighters tackled a second blaze within a matter of weeks at the former Viewforth High building in February.

Three heritage buildings in Fife have been damaged by fire since the devastating Notre Dame blaze in Paris a year ago – one of them twice.

Across the UK more than 400 historic buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the last 12 months according to the National Database of Fires in Heritage Buildings - that’s an average of more than one a day.

In Fife the figures included two fires at the former Viewforth High School in Kirkcaldy’s Loughborough Road.

Police treated January's fire at the C-listed former school in Kirkcaldy as an act of wilful fireraising

The C-listed building was struck by fire on January 5 this year, before a second blaze broke out in the former school around a month later on February 15.

On both occasions it is thought 20 per cent of the building, which dates back to 1898, suffered damage.

Three fire appliances were sent out to the blaze which broke out at around 10.50pm on January 5.

It was discovered to have started in a former classroom and police treated it as an act of wilful fireraising.

While on February 15, the fire service were called just before 12.30am with two crews responding.

No one was injured in either incident.

The building has been vacant since pupils moved into the new Windmill Campus elsewhere in the town in 2016.

Edinburgh-based developers Whiteburn Projects intend to renovate and convert the former school into around 100 new homes.

Last summer the former Rescobie House Hotel in Leslie suffered an estimated 25 per cent of damage following a fire.

The blaze in the C-listed building last August saw three fire appliances attend at around 8pm on August 8, when they discovered the roof well alight.

The third heritage building to be hit by fire in the last year was a property in South Street, St Andrews which houses the Shawarma House takeaway.

It went on fire just last month, just four months after the cafe and takeaway business had opened its doors.

Five fire appliances tackled the blaze, which started in the kitchen at the rear of the building before spreading to the vacant flats on the first floor.

The road was closed for several hours as crews extinguished the fire and dampened the property down.

No one was injured in the blaze, which is estimated to have damaged around 40 per cent of the C-listed building.

The National Database of Fires in Heritage Buildings recorded a total of 417 fires in heritage buildings across the UK over the past year.

Specialist fire risk assessor Keith Atkinson, who is co-author of the database, has called for tighter laws forcing owners of all heritage assets to boost their protection measures.

He said: “If it is a modern building that burns down, although disastrous for the owners and occupiers, hopefully it is insured and is easily rebuilt - but you cannot rebuild heritage.”

In Scotland, there have been more than 40 fires in heritage buildings in the past year, the database shows.

A spokesperson for Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said: “HES works closely with owners of listed and historic buildings to provide advice, and we have published detailed guidance on fire safety management for historic buildings which sets out the principles which should be applied.”

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