These dramatic images show the extent of the devastation when Hilltown Indoor Market and Fit4Less gym were wiped off the map.
The ferocious blaze led to the roof of the building collapsing on September 12 2018.
On successive nights, fire services in the city were stretched to their limits.
As a precursor, a farm building at Strathmartine was burned down with livestock killed in the inferno, before Braeview Academy in Whitfield was severely damaged.
Now, Hilltown Indoor Market and Fit4Less were in ruins.
The Hilltown building was the former Norco superstore, which was constructed for £4 million in 1990 and became Scotland’s largest retail outlet at 52,000 square feet.
The store was built on the site of the former Bowbridge Works, which is remembered for the large camel sculpture that sat over the entrance arch until 1955.
Although the works were demolished in 1987 several features of the old mill were retained including the cast iron gates and stone pillars on the Caldrum Street entrance.
The store in Main Street opened in November 1990, before Norco collapsed in 1993 and Scotmid reopened the vacant building in 1996 and created more than 200 jobs.
Scotmid announced it was closing the store in May 1997, before 20,000 square feet of the premises were offered for lease and became a Fitness First health club.
The Energie group took over in 2003 and eventually rebranded as Fit4Less.
The Hilltown Indoor Market neighbouring the gym opened in 2013 following the demise of Dens Road Market, which closed after 44 years of business.
Dundee’s largest indoor market opened every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9am until 4pm and was home to more than 100 stalls and two cafés.
The indoor market closed on Christmas Eve 2016 to undergo refurbishment work and was due to relaunch in March 2017 but the revamp never took place.
The market remained shuttered.
The charity Tayside Furniture Re-use Network then secured the lease for the building.
There were plans for the remaining spaces to be let to smaller traders that would pay a set fee every week to the charity, to go towards the upkeep of the building.
Disaster struck on September 12 2018.
Hundreds of people gathered in the street as 60 firefighters fought a losing battle to contain the flames, which spread rapidly in all directions.
Police closed Thistle Street, Main Street, Dens Road and Isla Street during the blaze.
There were 12 fire appliances in attendance, as well as a command support unit and an incident support unit.
Gym-goers were evacuated moments before the power failed by a man who had arrived to collect his wife from her class and rushed in when he saw the flames.
The lights went out and then the fire alarm went off.
Locals said the fire started in a sofa that had been left outside the market.
Four youths were seen leaving the area just before it broke out.
Flames were seen leaping into the air and plumes of black smoke billowed across the city skyline for the third night in a row.
Gary Gallagher, a former trader at Hilltown Indoor Market, said he had been working voluntarily to help the premises reopen before firebugs struck.
He said: “It now looks likely that the building is going to have to be demolished.
“We were just waiting for the completion certificate and were about a week away from opening.
“When I heard about the fire, I rushed down and stayed there until after midnight.
“By the time I left, the building looked to be in a pretty bad way.
“This is very bad news but there’s nothing we can do about it – we will just have to start looking around for new premises.”
Alan Ross, the convener of the public protection and community safety committee, said it was lucky no one had been injured or killed in any of the fires across Dundee.
Fit4Less members in the Hilltown had their memberships transferred temporarily to the franchise’s other centre in Dundee, at Douglasfield.
Tayside Furniture Re-Use Network relocated to the Kingsway West retail park.
Four teenagers – aged 13, 15, 16 and 19 – were charged in connection with the fire.
Engineers and insurers felt the best option was to demolish the former marketplace and gym in March 2019, which was deemed to be beyond repair.
Surveyors had expressed concerns over loose detritus, such as roof sheeting, blowing off of the site and potentially damaging nearby properties.
Plans were unveiled in September 2019 to turn the site into a multi-purpose leisure facility with ten-pin bowling, a kids’ play gym, indoor golf and amusements.
Then things took a further twist.
Northern Irish firm Sigma Property Holdings had submitted the redevelopment plans, but the company was dissolved a day before it was given the go-ahead.
Was there a developer out there willing to build the leisure park? No.
The next chapter for the former jute works site could be housing.
A pre-application notice for a residential development of 100 homes was approved by Dundee City Council in August 2022, following community consultation.
The decision paves the way for Springfield Properties to put forward a full plan before the end of the year that would breathe new life into the abandoned site.
A new dawn may finally rise from ashes.
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