A PUBLIC Inquiry should be held into the 2018 fire at the Mackintosh Building of the Glasgow School of Art, a fire expert has declared.

Stephen Mackenzie, an independent fire expert, who gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament committee which is looking into the June 2018 fire, said a full public inquiry - such as the Grenfell Tower Inquiry or the 2017 Inquiry into the Construction of Edinburgh Schools - would be in the "public interest."

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At Mr Mackenzie's appearance at the Culture Committee, he said, among other comments, that he was puzzled about the lack of a mist fire suppression system in the Mackintosh Building, which was destroyed by fire in June last year.

Mr Mackenzie's comments at the Committee led to the GSA issuing trenchant supplementary evidence to the committee last week, which included extended criticism of Mr Mackenzie.

It is understood Mr Mackenzie will, in turn, now submit a document of evidence of his own to the Committee within the next fortnight.

Fire services and Police Scotland are currently investigating the causes of the fire, and as yet no report from the complex investigation has been finalised.

Reports last weekend suggested the fire, which destroyed the world-famous building only four years after the first fire in 2014, had been ablaze for up to an hour before the alarm was raised.

Fire crews were on the scene within six minutes but the building was already ablaze “from top to bottom”, according to the report.

Mr Mackenzie said that it was clear there had been a "catastrophic failure" of fire detection, alarms or on-site security.

He said: "I call for a full public inquiry and impress upon the Scottish Parliament Culture Committee to order such in the public interest.

"To drill into the true facts of the case....to also explore leading edge measures, guidance and legislation to protect Scotland’s national treasures for generations to come."

He added that "such an inquiry will drill into a wider body of tangible physical and documentary evidence, witness statements and expert testimony where uncertainty remains following such destructive fire incident.

"I also impress upon the investigating authorities to publish periodic updates, as appropriates on progress, given the case is commanding international press coverage."

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Some observers have told The Herald that if there is an Inquiry - perhaps suggested by the Scottish Parliament committee in a report - that it should also cover the circumstances surrounding the 2014 fire, which destroyed the west end of the building.

That fire began in a Degree Show exhibit, when a foam artwork was ignited by a hot projector and spread - with the aid of voids in the fabric of the building - to the rest of the west end of the building, including the Mackintosh-designed library.

A spokeswoman for the Glasgow School of Art said: "Any decision as regards a Public Inquiry lies with the Scottish Government.

"Should they so decide, the GSA would, of course, participate fully in the process."

Mr Mackenzie added that the Inquiry could take advice from the lead investigator of the fire "on what material is disclosable or non-disclosable to the culture committee and ultimately in the public interest, to allow necessary lessons learnt to be put in place to protect other Scottish historic treasures and collections."

However, he warned of the cost implications of a lengthy inquiry.

He cautioned: "Such a public inquiry will be resource intensive and costly to the public, detracting from the more urgent post-Grenfell Tower fire and building standards reviews which are as appropriate focusing on the life safety criticality."

The call comes as the O2 ABC music venue looks set to be demolished.

A building warrant application has been submitted to Glasgow City Council to "demolish the substantially fire damaged building in its entirety".

It comes almost eight months after the iconic music venue was extensively damaged by the fire at Glasgow School of Art.

The blaze tore through the building at 326 Sauchiehall Street on June 15, resulting in the roof of the property collapsing.