An investigation is underway into the cause of a major blaze which brought Perth to a near standstill at the weekend.
City centre streets were closed off while firefighters tackled the fire in the derelict White Horse Inn in North William Street.
The exclusion zone took in North Methven Street, Atholl Street, Kinnoull Street, Union Lane and Foundry Lane, causing major disruption to traffic in the centre of Perth as diversions were put in place.
The fire, which was reported at 4.40am on Saturday, has left a large section of the former hotel and pub gutted.
It was early afternoon on Saturday before traffic was able to get moving again and a police presence remained outside the building on Sunday.
The blaze spread to the roof space of the vacant property and at the height of the incident six appliances and 30 firefighters were in attendance.
Brian Robertson, station manager at Perth, said they were faced with a “well established fire” on arrival.
Units from Perth were augmented by others from Dunkeld and Dundee and breathing apparatus and jets were used to extinguish the fire.
A command unit was set up to coordinate efforts of the emergency services and aerial ladders allowed the firefighters to direct jets of water down onto the roof of the building.
Mr Robertson said as it was a derelict building they were able to fight the fire externally from two adjoining streets to bring it under control.
As well as dousing the exposed timbers of the roof the firefighters cut away smouldering sections while looking for hot spots within the building.
Local people who had watched the fire service operation said that areas of the roof appeared to keep reigniting.
A handful of nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution and taken to the Salutation Hotel in Perth.
The White Horse Inn has been empty for many years and was hit by another fire back in 2013.
Planning permission has been granted in the past for the building’s demolition and replacement with 15 flats and local councillor Heather Stewart said there was now a real question mark hanging over the building.
“I don’t want it to be left as an eyesore,” said Ms Stewart who lives nearby.
“If it has to come down, it has to come down.
“It has lain empty for a long time and there had been problems in the past of people getting in.”
Ms Stewart said the traffic had been “chaotic” as a result of the road closures but she understood the reasons.
“It caused a huge problem on Saturday but the fire service would only do it (the road closures) if they needed to do it,” she said.
