Glasgow Fire at Co-op Funeral Building on Morrison Street - 28th November 2011

At approximately 14:15, on Monday 28th November 2011, I detected a burning smell from within my flat on 53 Morrison Street. The blinds were closed and I was listening to music on my headphones.

I opened the blinds to see smoke billowing from the old Co-Operative Society Funeral Building, directly across the road from my flat.

Over the next few hours, the building was completely gutted by the fire. It had lain empty for 5 or 6 years, so everything inside would have been bone dry and left unattended. There was no way it could have been saved.

I managed to get a good amount of footage thanks to my proximity to the building. The heat coming from the building was intense. I also managed to get outside onto street level before the area had been completely cordoned off.

At 16:00 hours, my building was completely evacuated. Nobody was allowed to leave via the front entrance onto Morrison Street, for obvious reasons. The fire burned ferociously.

More than 100 firefighters attended the scene to battle the blaze in torrential rain. First crews on scene were from Polmadie and Govan fire stations. It was quickly upgraded to a 'level 4' with 17 appliances in attendance, The first four on the scene entered the building wearing breathing apparatus to check for casualties. You can see this at around 1.15 in this video.

As the afternoon progressed, the fire worsened and crews from all over the city raced to the scene. Clouds of smoke and ash were blown all over the city, but the nearby M8 and M74 motorways remained open. We were able to re-enter our accommodation at around 21:00 hours, once the blaze was under control.

Fire crew have been on hand all day today (Tuesday 29th November) and only finished drenching the building with water at around 17:00 hours. The area around the shell of the iconic Gusset Building remains closed.

FIND OUT MORE:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland...

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-cent...

For the music, visit:

http://bazaar.voltergeist.com