King Street fire update 16 July 2025
A large stretch of King Street and Sandbed Street both remain closed as teams from East Ayrshire Council, Scottish Fire and Rescue, Police Scotland, demolition contractors and energy suppliers work to make the area safe following Monday night’s catastrophic fire.
Access to the area will continue to be restricted until further notice.
Scottish Fire and Rescue
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are now confident that the fire is extinguished, but they are carrying out regular monitoring until demolition teams move in to prevent any re-ignition.
Demolition
Structural Engineers and a Demolition contractor have been appointed by the Council, and visited the site together with our Building Control team. The heavy lifting equipment has now arrived on site and work will start tomorrow to carry out limited demolition of those parts of the building shell which pose immediate danger. Once this safety demolition is complete a further assessment will be made to work out how much further demolition is needed.
Power
Electricity and Gas supplies were cut off in a limited area of King Street during the incident to keep fire crews safe. A site meeting is being held urgently to assess and plan reconnection as a priority for any affected surrounding premises and to re-establish street lighting as soon as possible.
Business Support
Our Business Support and Town Centre Regeneration teams are working to put together financial support, help in finding alternative premises, and to help tackle any other issues suffered by neighbouring businesses affected by the fire and wider closures. Details of grant supports will be publicised soon.
Police Scotland
Police Scotland have confirmed that they are working on active lines of enquiry and caution people about speculating or using unsuitable language on social media while these enquiries are ongoing.
We can help
If your business is affected and you’d like to receive regular business focused updates and know more about Business Support and grants available please fill in this short form.