A bar manager who was seriously injured when a fire exploded and sprayed him with ignited fuel has been transferred to a specialist hospital.
Stuart Skinner is understood to have suffered second-degree burns to his arms, one leg and his stomach in the incident at the Highland capital’s Hootananny venue.
Family members said yesterday he was “going to be ok” – but that he had a “long recovery ahead”.
Mr Skinner is believed to have been transferred from Raigmore Hospital in Inverness to the specialist burns unit at the St John’s Hospital in Livingston.
Staff at traditional music venue Hootananny were still in shock yesterday following the fire.
A gig by Glasgow-band Admiral Fallow was due to go ahead last night, with the bar having been closed on Monday evening after the horrifying incident.
Hootananny owner, Kit Fraser, said last night: “We have an artificial fire in the premises which has to be filled up with fuel.
“Stuart was doing that, adding the fuel to the tank in the fire. It appears he hit the button to ignite the fire and the vapour in the air caught fire and the blowback caused the plastic refuelling container to explode.
“The burning fuel was sprayed all over Stuart and his clothes, setting him alight. He did his best to extinguish the flames and the staff rushed to his aid.
“It was all over in seconds but Stuart was badly burned.”
Mr Fraser paid tribute to his long-term colleague.
“He has been with me for 10 years and is an excellent manager,” he said.
“He is very popular with the customers and he has definitely helped make the bar the success it is.
“We are all shell-shocked by this and can’t bear to think of the pain he must be going through now.
“We have a sold-out concert tonight and I think it is what Stuart would have wanted that we reopen right away after the clean-up operation has been done.”
Mr Skinner’s social media pages were flooded with messages of support from well-wishers yesterday.
One family member said: “Stuart has asked me to post that he is in hospital and he is going to be ok but has a long recovery ahead. Thanks for all your wishes. I’m sure he will update you in the next couple of days himself.”
Another wrote: “He will recover, it will just be a long road to get there, I have no doubt that he will be getting all the support he needs to do so from the professionals, family and friends.”
Firefighters were called to the Church Street venue at 5.18pm on Monday.
By the time crews arrived the blaze had been put out by staff using fire extinguishers.
A thorough search of the three-storey building was carried out to ensure everyone was accounted for.
The ground floor was extensively smoke-damaged.
A spokesman for the fire brigade said last night that an investigation into the cause of the incident was ongoing.