Wednesday March 11th 2026
East Lothian Council headquarters
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Concern over the number of residential homes above licensed vape shops has been raised after the tragedy of the Glasgow city centre blaze.
Musselburgh councillor Shona McIntosh questioned the risks connected to the flats in her own ward where she said there were a number of the shops with people living above them.
Her comments came at a meeting of the council’s Labour administration cabinet, as members were updated on the local authority’s risk management strategy just days after Glasgow city centre was ablaze following a fire which appeared to be connected to a shop selling the electric items on the ground floor.
The blaze broke out in the shop on Union Street on Sunday afternoon quickly engulfing the entire Victorian building it was in and leading to the temporary closure of Central Station in the city.
Councillor Shona McIntosh asked the council’s officers about action which could be taken in the wake of the incident to protect county residents.
She said: “Given the terrible scenes from Glasgow Central yesterday and the day before I wondered does this strategy allow us to look again at the licensing of vape shops.
“And would you also link with housing, because what I was thinking of particularly when you saw the ferocity of the flames, is there are vape shops in Musselburgh that have houses above them. I don’t know how many of those homes are our houses but either way should multiple services be involved in that?”
Officers told the meeting that they would work with other services to review the risks.
They said: “From an emergency planning and resilience position we’d be linking in with emergency services and any advice that comes out of this tragedy to see if there is anything for our council as well.
And council chief executive Laurence Rockey added: “We are in touch with Scottish Government, fire and rescue service and other professional bodies on a range of issues and as the risk picture changes and as it changes nationally and we, unfortunately learn lessons from really difficult incidents like this fire in Glasgow we are connected to those conversation.”
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