A small fire in a wall fan at the Fort Hotel in Broughty Ferry has caused weeks of delays and will cost thousands of pounds in repair.
The fire happened earlier this month when golfers were staying at the hotel annexe in Fort Street and, although firefighters were quickly on the scene to put out the flames, they had to cut away large sections of the wall to ensure the fire had not spread further into the building.
As a result, the room has been out of action and is impacting on the completion date of the five-year hotel restoration project, which is due to finish soon.
Owner John Black said: “It was a small electrical fire in a fan but because it was behind a wall the firefighters had to pull it all out.
“It’s in the hands of the insurance company now and these things take time, so in the meantime we can’t use the room and we’ve had to pass customers on to other hotels when we’re full up.”
The delay comes at a time when the Fort Hotel steak bar is also about to be completely refurbished and changed into an Italian restaurant.
“We’re calling it Borgotaro which is named after the town in Italy where my grandfather Ernesto grew up,” John explained.
“My mum’s family were Italian and the town is called Borgo Cal di Taro so we thought it would be quite nice to call it after that.”
The project will have a big impact on the operation of the popular lounge/steak bar, which will have to be effectively halved during the restoration period John says.
“We’ll have to close off half of the lounge, then the other half once the first phase is done,” John said.
The completion of the current project will have seen the transformation from the once tiny single property when his dad John senior bought the pub in 1981, into the hotel/pub/restaurant complex which stretches almost the entire length of the block.
In addition there is the hotel annexe and the serviced apartment block, which is part of the hotel’s accommodation.