Glasgow Central is on Fire!

[weareallqueens]

The fire started in a vape shop, apparently but seems utterly out of control now. No trains in or out of the station. Has hit the Grand Central Hotel too.

DD lives about a 10 min walk from there. I’ve messaged her but there’s no reply yet.

I was so hopeful that Union st would improve with the lovely building on the other side finally being turned into a hotel. 😩

I wonder what hideous modern replacement will be allowed.

All this damage and loss of history from a shitty hideous vape shop that was probably a money-laundering front.

If there can be a positive, maybe new H&S that will mean the many, many vape shops, on high streets across the UK, will have to spend on safer practices.

Maybe this will drive some out @SpaceRaccoon ….🤞

Now that's really sad.

OT but as of last year you now have to get a prescription from a doctor for a vape , or buy it illegally where I live.
That building looks lovely, how sad for it to destroyed for such a stupid reason.

Wow, there's not much left of it, so very sad. I really hope nobody hurt.

It’s the Forsyth Building on Union St, now saying it’s partially collapsed, such a shame beautiful building.

Will the station be able to open tomorrow? It’s gonna be chaos if not!

The liquid in vapes is mostly propylene glycol. It is not flammable.

No, it won't be open tomorrow.

Apparently not: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8l2wx0027o

A Network Rail spokesperson said the station would not reopen on Monday morning.

You forgot about all the lithium batteries in them.

Thermal runaway is very very difficult to control and extinguish

It’s devastating to see such special buildings destroyed. I just hope that they can save the station and hotel. I do wish that all the idiots watching when they’ve been told to go home grow up and go home as they should because the emergency services have enough to deal with, but they probably won’t.

Local authorities should have more say over which businesses are on their high streets even if via private landlords. Some businesses are actively detrimental to the area they are in and vape shops and those awful mini marts are but two(Bookies being another).I’d honestly rather have an empty shopfront than a vape shop.

I hope that some good will come of this and that it will lead to further restrictions on vape shops though I rather doubt that it will.

It's the batteries.

Maybe everyone should stop speculating and gossiping until investigations are done.
You can already see so many inaccuracies on this thread, I'm not sure how adding to a tragedy with speculation helps anyone.

I get really nervous about batteries now. Lithium is quite new. As it ages there’s a lot of things in people’s houses which are going to start going boom.

Also drives me mad that all these powerbanks are needed for travel now with airline on mobile tickets. Was flying last week where they were selling powerbanks in the sky and just thinking this is a recipe for fucking disaster.

It's listed on the official network rail website that it started in the vape shop.

The batteries are.

But does it say that it was from a dodgy vape in a shop used for money laundering?

Even the name of the fucking thread is false!

I used to vape with one of those pen type ones and recharged it overnight behind my bed. Woke up in bed one night......with my actual bed on fire ! The button had somehow got depressed I think,overheated and the battery then exploded into my pillow which was by then alight ,as was my duvet and mattress with a line of burnt carpet behind my headboard . Suffice to say,I immediately quit...but it was shocking just how quicky it spread .Had I left it charging downstairs overnight ,we wouldn't be here now 😰

Yes, not just flammable but indistinguishable!

Honestly it’s madness.

I don’t think people realise this. You can take a flaming Tesla and put it in a skip of water and it will stop flaming until you take it out again and it recombusts. You literally cannot put it out.

Those vape shops are a total curse. Shut down the lot of them. Encouraging youngsters to vape when little is known about the long term effects.

Not a chance.
Fire brigade and any police investigation will have to finish up, specialist surveyors will need to assess which areas of the building are safe for the public to be near, Network Rail/ScotRail will need to establish safe entrances and exits and which platforms are safe to use etc.

I'd assume several platforms will be out of action for weeks while bits of buildings are made safe and/or demolished.

I was on a train bound for Glasgow travelling from down south. Around 6pm they announced Central was closed, we were held at Carstairs for an hour and then terminated at Motherwell. There were a couple of buses put on but I managed to get picked up. I’m sure they will have a contingency plan in place but it will be disruptive, even coming in by bus/road will be likely to be impacted. Just saw the news that sexy coffee on union street has been destroyed