Police are treating Sunday night’s fire as ‘wilful’

Police have confirmed that they are treating a fire on Stonyhurst Street in the Possilpark area of Glasgow as ‘wilful’. Emergency services rushed to the scene where they battled the blaze until Monday.

Detective Inspector Neil Martin said: “The fire is being treated as wilful and we are asking anyone who saw anything suspicious around the time of the incident to get in touch.

“Fortunately no one was injured but this kind of reckless activity is not acceptable and caused serious disruption in the area.

“Please also check any private CCTV that you have and let us know if something has been captured that could assist with our investigation. Likewise, if you were driving in the area check dash-cam and call us if you have footage that could assist.”

Earlier, NG Homes, who are set to refurbish the building for affordable housing in the area, said that the building had been the subject of misinformation in recent months. They sought to dispel claims that it was being used to house asylum seekers in a statement.

A spokesperson said: “We are aware that disinformation has circulated regarding the future use of the homes and would once again stress that these claims are false. The buildings are being refurbished to provide much-needed affordable homes and, as we have previously stated, these properties will be allocated in line with our Allocations Policy and Scottish housing legislation from our existing housing list.

“As a registered social landlord, we do not allocate housing to people who are not legally eligible for it, and all applications are assessed in accordance with the relevant legal requirements.

“The extent of the damage is still being assessed, and it is too early to confirm the impact on project timescales.

“Our focus remains on supporting the investigation and progressing the delivery of these much-needed homes for the Possilpark community as quickly as possible.

Paul Sweeney said rumours had been spread about the use of the building (Andrew Milligan/PA)

placeholder image — Paul Sweeney said rumours had been spread about the use of the building (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Local MSP Paul Sweeney was one of those who attended the scene on Sunday evening. In a video posted to social media, he called the incident “completely outrageous”.

In the video, he said: “After several months of disinformation about what’s happening with the Stonyhurst Street tenements here in Possilpark, we’ve now had an incident of wilful fire raising in the end close, where someone has clearly climbed the scaffolding here and poured an accelerant onto the roof and set fire to it.

“Thankfully the fire service appear to have caught the blaze and extinguished it before it could do serious structural damage but this is completely outrageous.

“After 20 years of these tenements sitting derelict, finally, after much work by myself and other elected representatives, we secured nearly £3million in government investment to bring these tenements back, renovate them so they can be used in the community in a city with a housing emergency.”

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, Glasgow City Council's convener for housing and development, also took to social media to blast those responsible.

He said: "If this was a deliberate arson attack, then all that these thugs and criminals have achieved is to extend the wait that local people will now have for the house moves they desperately need."

Anyone who can help is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 2447 of Sunday, 6 September, 2026.