Glasgow firefighters have knowledge to share with crews across globe, expert claims

A professor from Imperial College London believes fire crews should be sent to the city from across the world to learn from their experiences tackling large-scale blazes.

Professor Guillermo Rein, a fire science expert, claimed the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is a world leader in this area of expertise after recent fires.

He told the Sunday Mail blazes in heritage buildings are rare, occurring perhaps once or twice in a firefighter’s career.

He added: "There’s a lot to be learned from the School of Art fires. I hold the Scottish firefighters in very high esteem.

“For any city in the world that has a cathedral or significant heritage building, I would be sending a delegation to Glasgow.

“What they saw and experienced is very valuable.

"We cannot afford to have many more of these types of fires.

“We know now that those involved in the work which was being carried out at Notre-Dame were surprised that the fire burned so fast.

“But they designed the fire protection in isolation from the rest of the world – they did the opposite of learning from others.

“It turns out their fire protection design was flawed. It shows why it is important to learn from experiences of others and to share knowledge.

“It highlights that the rest of the world needs to know and learn from what the Scottish fire services experienced.”

Rein said that it was a 'concern' the Glasgow School of Art burned twice – though it was not the fire service that failed.

He continued: “They did the best they could – but it means the rest of the world can now learn from them. They will have become world leaders in dealing with fires like this.

“If I was the mayor of Paris, I would be sending officials to Scotland to learn from what they experienced fighting the School of Art fires.”