Things worth knowing about the Glasgow School of Art problems.

This blog is greatly assisted by the constant flow of information that is supplied by friends and contacts of this blog. Today’s story comes via our resident legal eagle Ewan Kennedy from Argyll who has sent a story about efforts of one of his friends who seeks to share important information about the fires and other matters at the Glasgow School of Art. That these matters may soon involve hundreds of millions of public funds it does seem important that these matters are fully explained.

Good Morning Iain

I’m writing to introduce you to my friend Gordon Gibb, who has been very active in exposing what’s been going on at the Glasgow School of Art around the fires and other matters. Gordon was sacked from his senior position because of his activities, and has been tireless in his efforts.

He’s been mainly publishing on Facebook, with occasional articles in Sunday Post and a couple of other papers, but I think his message has political aspects that would merit the attention of Yoursforscotland readers. I’ve annexed the text of his latest FB message, plus the link to a recent Guardian article.

Best wishes

Ewan

The rebuilding of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, lost to fire in 2018, is not covered by insurance. This latest revelation demonstrates further management incompetence by the GSA board, leading me to conclude that they should no longer have anything to do with the stalled restoration project. I say that as one who trained in the Mack, an architect, a former staff member and a professor, who passionately wishes for its early return.

My investigations found that the 2014 fire spread because a student was allowed to use flammable materials and a heat source in a room left unprotected by ongoing building works, which allowed the fire to get out of the room, to gain access to heating ducts, before destroying the roof and library. The GSA management then released an untruthful report about the cause of the spread to the press, covering up their own involvement, before SFRS (the Fire Brigade) could issue the true account. And GSA learned nothing at all.

SFRS say the fire in 2018 was probably caused by wilful fire raising or an electrical fire in wiring. The fire started in a duct in Level 5 on the South face of the East wing of the the building. The duct was sizeable and hidden from view. There were three large external ventilation openings in it, through which someone unseen could insert a petrol soaked rag. There were also live wires in it and a plentiful supply of oxygen.

It started around 9.30 p.m. on 15 June 2018. Someone walking along Renfrew Street smelled burning material around 9.45 p.m. The first sign of anything wrong inside the building was around 11.10 p.m. when the lone night watchman, sitting two floors below, heard creaking. That was the sound of the building tearing itself apart, as it was consumed by fire on its upper floors. The watchman ascended the East stair about 11.19 p.m. and saw the fire. He called the Fire Brigade. Simultaneously, flames could now be seen in Dalhousie Street through the window to the Professor’s Room, adjacent to the Mackintosh Room at the East end of the First Floor corridor. That room and window were right above the timber duct.

When the Fire Brigade arrived the fire was in the roof. They entered through the main Renfrew Street doors and found no fire anywhere below that duct. The fire alarm had not gone off.

And it was already too late. Just as the Titanic would inevitably sink once four bulkheads had been overtopped, in the Mack once the fire was in the original heating ducts and in the roof at the older timber-constructed East end of the building, there was no hope of survival, on that warm dry summer night. Within hours there was only misshapen masonry, distorted steelwork and clinker.

Afterwards we were told of stories by the GSA board about the “Gold Standard” fire protection. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The sprinklers that had been installed years late, and so couldn’t operate to put out the first fire in 2014, had then been ripped out before the second in 2018. All the original ducts that should have been blocked to prevent fire spread had been left open, the building wasn’t closed off into fire compartments and the contractor was using the building as its offices. Also the GSA was storing flammable materials in it, having parties in it and had been using part of it as a suite of offices, with power, computers and cooking facilities. All of this was against Health & Safety guidance for vulnerable buildings.

The top of the suite of offices that the GSA had been using, at the East end of the building, at its South face, were close to the underside of the duct where the fire started. It is reported by SFRS that there was energised electric and data cabling in that duct, that may have gone on fire. I know from speaking to the GSA’s IT staff that there had been electrical fires in old cabling there before, when it was fully occupied. Were any of these cables old cables left in place because GSA was using part of the building? I don’t know.

Post calamity, the GSA did not cooperate with the Parliamentary Committee and refused to hand over documents. Senior staff were disappearing like snow off a dyke, all having signed non-disclosure agreements. £800,000 of public money was squandered by the GSA board in these payoffs. We, the staff, had been told in a very threatening way not to talk about the fire to anyone, even our families. Something stunk. I have always thought, and this may be borne out by the latest revelations, that the smell was fear by the board of discovery of their failures.

We are now told there is a wrangle with the insurer. Really? The insurer paid out handsomely after the first fire in 2014. They paid out enough so that the GSA could use the donations they obtained for the fire restoration on other projects throughout the campus.

So why did GSA have to make a “Business Case” for the 2018 rebuild, to the Scottish Government? Why have they been saying for over a year that they will need to raise extra funds?

I think GSA underinsured the building after the first fire, to reduce the premium. There was a meeting that became an almighty screaming match among all the senior staff, overheard by one of my former colleagues, right after the 2018 fire. One senior staff member then suddenly went off sick, and effectively into hiding, never to return. There was this web of secrecy, and the demand for silence. And then the GSA refused to hand over the insurance policy to the Parliamentary Committee. Then the need for more money. This suggests underinsurance to me.

However, it has been revealed that the insurer is not paying out even the underestimated sum now. The reason is stated to be information within the SFRS report. The report states that the Fire Warning System (FWS), which may have been the original system for the building, may not have met the British Standard, and there was no record of maintenance or testing of the system. I hypothesise that this failure by GSA to protect the building adequately may have invalidated the insurance policy. If there is no payout, at least £250 million will have to be found for the rebuild.

So the GSA have now gone to arbitration against their own insurer, to try to get them to pay out. Arbitration is a private process, meaning that GSA don’t have to declare their insurance details. And they need to engage a new design team, after the last procurement disaster, for a new “Business Case” to be produced next year, to try to get all the money from the taxpayers they have treated with contempt, while saying:

– “I’m sure the Government will help us out”.

We may not see the Mack rebuilt in the next ten years, or ever. I find that unacceptable. Right now the GSA board is untouchable and they don’t seem to care. There should be a Public Inquiry, with powers to obtain documents. We should have all the answers. Those responsible should be held accountable. Only then can all the lessons be learned, for the good of our national heritage.

Meanwhile a competent authority, that donors and funders can trust, should rebuild the Mack.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/may/11/glasgow-mackintosh-school-of-art-fire-restoration-funding-repair?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1kDZlNDzCcCNtf-1lRD9lLzgaDOSMb8y1BvN28CO9rAENv_0jSvpyKhD4_aem_Ab36BWTsWJgSkWGZPMhxb9vQaiG66dkx2Zuv3Tf0nS4cYf9QYQHyzXO39Ad56AEKPLjxT9Cf3ciTUVbZ9CJmfxLD