The blaze which ripped through a derelict Kinross-shire hotel on Monday was ”suspicious”, investigators have concluded.
A large part of the giant Gartwhinzean Hotel was destroyed in the fire.
Firefighters experienced severe difficulties as flames spread through room after room it eventually took 25 firefighters the entire day to bring the blaze under control.
The hotel, near Powmill, has been closed for some time and crews faced problems accessing the building to tackle the growing inferno.
In addition, the age and construction of the building enabled the fire to spread through voids and gaps, allowing the flames to quickly spread to the annexes of the property, consuming the whole building.
Station manager Neil Kerr from Perth community fire station praised the actions of all those involved.
”This proved to be an extremely difficult fire to tackle,” he said. ”The windows and doors of the property had been boarded up, hindering access and delaying crews from applying water directly on to the fire.”
Tayside Fire and Rescue said electrical and gas supplies had long since been cut off to the property, so the fire was considered to be suspicious.
Police scene-of-crime officers and fire investigation officers are carrying out an investigation into the cause of the fire.
The fire broke out at 5am on Monday, prompting fire crews from Kinross, Auchterarder and Perth to rush to the scene. They were faced with flames already leaping through the roof of the hotel’s main building of the hotel.
Tayside Police were called in to close the A977 to traffic as a result of the smoke that billowed from the fire.
The Gartwhinzean had deteriorated in the years since its closure, which happened shortly after it was sold as part of a deal between the collapsed Swallow Group and an investment company.