FIREFIGHTERS have carried out more than 70 non-domestic fire checks in the area as a result of the fatal fire at Cameron House, the Reporter can reveal.

More than 200 people were evacuated from the Balloch hotel when the blaze happened on December 18. London couple Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson died in the fire.

This week, senior firefighters from Scottish Fire and Rescue Services (SFRS) praised the help they received from Police Scotland and revealed work that has gone on to try and prevent a similar tragedy.

Fire chief, Andy McClure, told the council’s Community Alliance Group on Thursday: “We would like to publicly thank Divisional Commander Hazel Hendren and all at Police Scotland for the great help and assistance we received during the fire at Cameron House.

“Since then we can confirm we have carried out more than 70 safety checks of non-domestic premises in West Dunbartonshire to hopefully prevent a fire of this nature happening again.”

The SFRS quarterly performance report covered the period from July 1 to December 31, 2017. The report highlighted that deliberate fire setting had dropped in the area by 35 per cent.

Mr McClure added: “As can be seen from the report, primary and secondary fires are reduced by 46 per cent, false alarms have reduced by nine per cent and total incidents by 20 per cent.

“However, special services required have increase by eight per cent. Fire and non-fire casualties have increased by 29 per cent.”

Figures showed there were 33 house fires with four casualties. There were 57 fires lit deliberately, 30 of them in the Dumbarton area and 27 in Clydebank.

Mr McClure said: “My officers have carried out 437 house fire safety visits and some 800 smoke alarms have been fitted during that period.”

There had been 317 incidents involving SFRS at a cost of £206,850.