Several families were evacuated from their homes after a fire broke out at a former council building in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire.
Firefighters worked through the night to tackle the blaze at the building on King Street.
Around five households are understood to have been evacuated from properties near the building as a precaution, with the nearby town hall opened as a rest centre.
Most were able to return to their homes later on Friday morning.
The fire was reported shortly after 11pm on Thursday.
Photographs on social media show the building engulfed in flames as smoke pours into the sky.
A spokeswoman for South Lanarkshire Council said: “When we were alerted to the fire in former council offices on King St, Rutherglen, we assisted SFRS (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service).
“As some residents had to be evacuated, we arranged for Rutherglen Town Hall to be opened as a rest centre and a small number had to be accommodated for the night.
“Some roads remain closed, and officers will be active in the area to provide further assistance as required.”
major fire in rutherglen at king st old council building on fire please avoid ruth pic.twitter.com/Y6oK2ubXef
— fiona (@fionasmith393) October 13, 2022
Pictures from the scene this morning show the building has been gutted by the blaze.
Fire crews remain in attendance and cordons have been put in place.
King Street is closed in both directions, with Farmeloan Road also shut as emergency services deal with the incident.
A fire service spokeswoman said: “We were alerted at 11.18pm on Thursday, October 13 to reports of a fire affecting a building at King Street, Rutherglen.
“Operations control mobilised seven fire appliances and two height vehicles to the scene, where crews remain in attendance as they work to extinguish the fire.
“Due to smoke in the area, people are advised to keep windows and doors closed.
“Drivers and pedestrians are also advised to avoid the area as roads around the scene remain closed and to allow access for emergency service vehicles.
“There are no reported casualties at this time.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel