The deaths of 14 elderly residents in a fire at a care home are to be investigated in a fatal accident inquiry (FAI.
The deaths of 14 elderly residents in a fire at a care home are to be investigated in a fatal accident inquiry (FAI.
The inquiry will open in Motherwell on November 16 and could last up to three months.
The move was announced by the Crown Office who said the inquiry would be conducted by Sheriff Principal Brian Lockhart.
The 14 elderly residents died on January 31 2004 after a blaze broke out in a downstairs cupboard at the Rosepark Care Home in Uddingston, Lanarkshire.
Four others were injured and 22 were evacuated.
The Crown Office said the inquiry would seek to ensure relatives could learn "the full circumstances of this tragic incident" and to identify any steps that might prevent a recurrence.
It would also seek to establish whether any reasonable precautions could have been taken to avoid the deaths, and whether any defects in systems of working contributed to them.
Preliminary hearings will be held in Hamilton on August 20 and October 8.
An attempt to prosecute the owners of the home collapsed in May when charges against them were dismissed.
Thomas Balmer, his wife Anne and their son Alan had faced 17 charges relating to health and safety and fire precaution regulations.
But the charges were dismissed at the High Court in Glasgow, on the basis that they were partners in a firm that had since dissolved and they could not therefore be prosecuted.
Michael McMahon, Labour MSP for Hamilton North and Bellshill, said: "Relatives of the victims have been waiting for this inquiry to happen since 2004 so that answers can be found and lessons can be learned from this terrible tragedy.
"It is deeply disappointing that prosecutors have taken so long to hold an inquiry as they pursued a futile legal route knowing that a loophole existed before they began.
"At last families of those who lost their lives will get the inquiry they want, but five years have been wasted before it has been delivered."
