Bosses at Glasgow School of Art have described the use of a “dangerous” fire-dancing act at its student union as “entirely unacceptable”.
The performance at a graduation party - exactly one year after a blaze destroyed the school’s iconic Mackintosh Building - saw a woman strip in front of a carpet of naked flames before hundreds of revellers were forced to evacuate due to smoke filling the room and setting off the fire alarm.
Firefighters had to rush to The Art School union in the Reid building – just metres from the fire-ravaged “Mack”.
GSA has claimed responsibility for the stunt, branded “distasteful” and “dangerous” by politicians, lies with The Glasgow School of Art Students Association (GSASA Ltd) as it is a separate legal entity.
However, some have accused the GSA of mismanagement and questioned why it would not impose “stringent control” over events in its buildings in light of the two previous fires.
A GSA spokesperson said: “We fully understand and share the outrage expressed about this entirely unacceptable incident, but reiterate that, as we have been explicit in recent weeks, The Glasgow School of Art Students Association and GSASA Ltd, also known as The Art School, are both separate legal and charitable entities from The Glasgow School of Art and therefore the ability of The Glasgow School of Art to intervene in the GSASA Ltd is limited.
“We take any and all breaches of health and safety or fire safety extremely seriously including in buildings the GSA leases to third parties, as in this case to GSASA.
“When notified of this wholly unacceptable incident we took immediate action requiring the GSASA to review their activities in the building they lease from the GSA.”
As revealed in our sister title, The Herald on Sunday, footage from the June 15 event shows the flames swelled and caused smoke to billow throughout the room, setting off the fire alarm and forcing the evacuation.
Labour MP for Glasgow North East Paul Sweeney said the incident showed a “breathtaking lack of judgment” and highlighted the “chronic mismanagement” at the campus.
Eva Bolander, SNP councillor for the Garnethill area, added that the incident would do nothing to help rebuild the relationship between the school and the local community.
“The trust between GSA management and the Garnethill community has to be rebuilt and one would expect that the most stringent control of events, activities and performances would be in place in all of GSA’s buildings,” she said.
A GSASA spokesman said: “The rigorous safety procedures and oversight in place around the event ensured that all safety measures were fully in place, and that at no point was there any danger to the attendees of the event.
“In terms of the GSASA Ltd adherence to ongoing fire safety assessment and improvements, a full fire safety audit was instituted after the incident with attendance and inspection by representatives of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.”
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