A gang of men have admitted torching a Fife primary school building.
Scores of firefighters rushed to the abandoned Inverkeithing Primary building at Roods Road to fight the blaze, started by Allan Alexander, Christopher Bauld and Kai Russell.
All three men appeared have admitted wilfully starting fires at the school – while acting with others – and applying accelerant, causing significant damage.
Footage of the blaze on social media showed flames towering above the much-loved building – worth more than £500,000, into the November night sky.
School break-in
Fiscal Depute Alistair McDermid told Dunfermline Sheriff Court Alexander, 23, Bauld, 21, and Russell, 22, had met with five others at Asda in Livingston at around 7pm on November 19, 2018.
They made their way by car to the Inverkeithing primary school and arrived about half an hour later.
Mr McDermid said: “The group entered the locus through an open window and began to explore.
“They got to the assembly hall and whilst there, Russell and Alexander were seen by others attempting to set fire to the curtains draped at the side of the stage with lighters.”
Meanwhile, Bauld, of Elm Court in Blackburn, was seen trying to set fire to hay on the floor, and a door.
Russell, of Aller Place in Livingston, was seen trying and failing to light a cardboard box filled with hay.
Witnesses reported either he or Alexander, of Kenilworth Rise in Livingston, said: “We’ve got it lit.”
Another of the men, who was not prosecuted, was seen spraying an aerosol of oil grease on the curtains.
The men fled to cries of “get in the car” and firefighters arrived within minutes.
Immediate suspicions
Nine engines, two height appliances, a command unit and a water bowser were all rushed to the scene.
SFRS considered soaking nearby homes in water to stop them catching light, but decided against it.
Remarkably, nobody had to be evacuated, although The Courier told how one person with a breathing condition had to be treated in hospital.
“In the 24 hours following, a large number of fire staff, police officers and local authority staff were at work at the locus fighting the fire and assessing the damage,” Mr McDermid said.
Senior firefighters immediately suspected an accelerant had been used.
The school itself was not covered by CCTV but some nearby security footage caught the registration plates of the two cars in which the men escaped.
One, belonging to Russell, was searched by police who found aerosol cans, marked “highly flammable”, in the boot.
All three men admitted setting fire to curtains, a cardboard box and a quantity of hay, and applying accelerant while acting with others.
They pled guilty to causing “significant damage” to the building and its contents.
The trio were released on bail by Sheriff Charles Macnair, who said that was no indication of what the final disposal would be.
Social work reports have been ordered ahead of the men being sentenced next month.
Plans for school
The court also heard the century-old C-listed school had been boarded up by the council and sold on to Glasgow based property developers for £400,000.
Since gaining planning permission to convert the listed building into flats, the premises’ valuation had risen to an estimated £550,000.
The building, which dates to 1913, had been saved from demolition just weeks before the blaze, when an application to have it razed was withdrawn.
Councillors had approved the demolition plans, which would have allowed 28 homes to be built on the site but Scottish Government ministers stepped in.
