Holyrood fire blamed on 'poor finishing'

Fire services have blamed poor construction of Scotland's Parliament for the outbreak of a fire which forced the evacuation of part of the building yesterday.

It is thought that the street-level fire behind metal railings close to the staff entrance was caused by a cigarette butt being thrown into a pile of rubbish which had been allowed to collect in a gap between the wall of the building and the pavement.

Smoke from the blaze got into a dry riser in the building and spread to several floors.

The blaze was quickly extinguished, and a senior fire service source was reported in the Scotsman newspaper as blaming the building's construction. It had "not been very well finished", he said.

Bovis Lend Lease, the main contractor on the troubled £414m project was unavailable for comment when this article was posted online.