Fire chiefs believe there were no suspicious circumstances behind a fire which devastated a well-known Aberdeen hotel this week.
Emergency services were called to the Britannia Hotel in Bucksburn just before 5pm on Thursday after a blaze broke out.
Witnesses told of how the fire escalated from smoke to flames within minutes and how, shortly afterwards, plumes of thick smoke could be seen coming out of the site on Malcolm Road.
The fire service sent 11 units to the scene and 90 firefighters spent most of the night tackling the blaze which destroyed the Village Pub and ripped through the buildings at the back of the site.
There were around 200 residents in the hotel at the time, many of whom were construction workers involved in nearby projects, who were forced to evacuate the building.
Malcolm Road and Oldmeldrum Road were sealed off and around ten nearby properties were also evacuated as a precaution.
The firefighters struggled to get the blaze under control and 11 of them were still combating it at 6am yesterday morning.
Three units remained at the scene for most of the day dampening the area as an investigation into the blaze was launched.
Graeme Hay, station manager at North Anderson Drive, confirmed yesterday that an investigation had been launched.
He said: “We have had crewmen on the site today who are carrying out investigations wherever they can, but some parts of the building have been declared structurally unsafe.
“We are dampening it down using aerial apparatus and jets.
“We are confident that the fire is not anything suspicious, but our investigation will be continued until we reach a conclusion over what caused it.
“A lot of people will be questioned in relation to the incident.”
A police spokeswoman added later: “We are not treating the fire as suspicious.”
