Developers who wanted to turn the Lochee Old St Luke’s Church into flats say they need to demolish parts of it following a major fire at the building.
This is bad like !! Lochee church on fire pic.twitter.com/js7tk9VlKE
— Billy Mitchell☮ (@billymitchelluk) September 4, 2017
Fire crews were called to the church, at the junction of Bright Street and Methven Street, on September 4 as fire tore through the 187-year building.
More than 30 firefighters were needed to bring the flames under control.
Three boys, aged 13, 14 and 15, have been charged with starting the fire and have been reported to the Youth Justice Assessor.
A perimeter fence has been erected around the church but the developers now say part of it will have to be demolished on safety grounds.
An application has been submitted to Dundee City Council asking for permission to knock down part of the building.
A report of fire damage by Dunfermline consulting engineers McGregor McMahon said the church hall and ancillary accommodation had been “generally unaffected” by the fire and has limited smoke damage.
But the main church and apse has been badly hit.
Their report states: “The fire was a malicious act and has resulted in the complete removal of the roof, and internal balcony, to the main church and Apse together with limited damage to the spire roof.”
It continues: “The fire has completely removed the roof structure and the timber constructed balcony structure except for a few charred isolated timber support beams.
“The removal of the roof and internal balcony has removed the stability of the side walls and the centre section of the wall is now remote from any return walls or stability.
“On this basis we would recommend the removal of the wall head and wall panel sections above the upper level window sills, reducing the overall height to 5 metres.”
The report said the spire of the church can be repaired.
It said: “This area is generally a square stone built tower with the stone steps up to the original balcony level.
“There are a number of openings within the tower for stairs and door openings and all the timber lintels in the area have been charred by the fire.
“Given that the tower is stone built and generally is a stable shape it is intended to simply infill the openings in the tower with timber frame panelling to re-instate the overall stability of the wall panels, effectively completing the square shape of the tower.”
Planning permission to convert the church into flats was granted by Dundee City Council in 2015.
Eleven flats would have been created in the church and five terraced houses would have been built on the land.
Developer Daniel Multon said work on the conversion had been close to starting before the fire.
