Overview
- The blaze began around 3:45 pm Sunday in a ground‑floor vape shop on Union Street.
- The 175‑year‑old B‑listed Union Corner building was largely destroyed, with its domed roof collapsing and only the Gordon Street façade left standing.
- Crew commander John Banach fought the fire for roughly six hours from a 115‑foot high‑reach ladder to hold a fire break protecting Glasgow Central Station and the Grand Central Hotel.
- A photograph by Brian Anderson showing an exhausted, soot‑covered Banach became a defining image of the incident.
- At the peak, 18 appliances and specialist kit, including a high‑volume pump drawing from the River Clyde, were deployed, with about 60 firefighters initially and nearly 200 involved overall, as officials praised crews and outlined forthcoming business support and potential tighter vape‑shop regulation.