Ayr station hotel fire: Third teenager arrested over blaze

The fire is the second at the building in four months

A third teenager has been charged over a fire at a derelict hotel in Ayr.

Crews have been tackling the blaze at the former Ayr Station Hotel on Smith Street for almost three days.

Rail services remain disrupted through Ayr and roads have been closed for public safety.

Two teenage boys, 17 and 13, had already been arrested and charged with wilful fire-raising. Police confirmed another 13-year-old has been charged on Wednesday.

All three will be reported to the relevant authorities and further inquiries are ongoing.

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Firefighters worked through the night on Monday and, at its height, 15 appliances attended the blaze.

A union has warned that service cuts delayed the fire service's response.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said crews had to wait 20 minutes for a high-reach vehicle from Kilmarnock as the Ayr station no longer had one.

But on arrival it broke down and a crew had to travel 35 miles from Castlemilk, Glasgow, to replace it.

The Scottish government said the deployment "did not impact the outcome" of the incident.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said the vehicles were "national assets".

The FBU said the incident came after 10 fire appliances and 12 high-reach vehicles were withdrawn from service due to Scottish government budget cuts.

It has also warned that a further 339 firefighter posts and 18 fire appliances are likely to be cut next year due to the projected budget settlement.

Colin Brown, FBU Scottish executive council member, said: "The fire at the Station Hotel Ayr is the latest example of the madness of the cuts being imposed on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

"At a time when fire appliances and high-reach vehicles have been withdrawn, this huge fire meant that fire appliances were called from across the south and west of Scotland, leaving communities behind with little or no cover should another incident have occurred at the same time."

He urged local MSP Siobhian Brown, the minister responsible for the service, to put pressure on the finance secretary for a greater share of the budget.

Ayr FBU branch secretary Kerry McCrone said: "The Station Hotel was one of Ayr's biggest fire risks.

"It was a big, unsafe, empty building beside a busy train station and a petrol station in the town centre.

"The people of Ayr will be rightly furious that this iconic building was left to rot for so long and that the fire service has been cut to such an extent that a vital high-reach appliance was removed from Ayr Station just a minute away from the site of this fire, just a month or so ago."

Emergency services were called to the former hotel shortly after 17:30 on Monday

No-one was injured in the incident but she added that lives could have been lost had the building been occupied.

SFRS area commander Ian McMeekin said the removal of Ayr's high appliance was part of a nationwide review.

He added: "High -each vehicles are national assets which can be strategically deployed to incidents across the country.

"As a national service, our highly trained operations control staff have the flexibility to mobilise the most appropriate fire appliance to any incident."

Siobhian Brown, who is Scotland's community safety minister, said: "I have received an assurance from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that the deployment of the high-reach appliance did not impact the outcome of this incident, which took place in a derelict building with no life risk.

The derelict hotel has been wrapped in protective scaffolding since a dangerous building notice was issued in 2018

Earlier, residents of Ayr called for the derelict station hotel to be demolished after it was ravaged by two fires in four months.

ScotRail have said they are not expecting to be able to run services to or from Ayr station for "at least the next few days".

Designed by the noted Scottish engineer Andrew Galloway, Ayr Station Hotel originally catered for an affluent clientele holidaying on the coast when it opened in 1855.

In more recent years it has held parties and weddings as well as being a key landmark for commuters in the town centre.

But campaigners said the hotel fell into disrepair after an "absentee owner" failed to maintain the building or respond to enforcement action.

In 2018, a dangerous building notice was issued and the former hotel was wrapped in a protective scaffolding.