FIRE safety recommendations made after an inquiry into the Cameron House Hotel fire that killed two men have been accepted by the Scottish Government, it’s being reported.

According to the BBC, Shona Robison, the cabinet secretary for social justice, housing and local government, has written to the sheriff who led a fatal accident inquiry last year into the blaze.

Hotel guests Richard Dyson, 38, and 32-year-old Simon Midgley died in the blaze at the luxury hotel in December 2017.

Sheriff Thomas McCartney made six recommendations in a 122-page report setting out his findings following last year’s FAI.

Two were directed at the Scottish Government – one recommending that they should require anyone converting a historic building for use as a hotel to have active fire suppressions installed, the other saying that an expert working group should be set up to explore in more detail the “special risks which existing hotels and similar premises may pose through the presence of hidden cavities or voids, varying standards of workmanship, age, and the variance from current standards” – and to consider revising guidance on the issue currently provided by others.

Other recommendations made by Sheriff McCartney in his FAI report were:

* Hotel operators should have up-to-date and robust proceedures to assess risks and ensure ash from open fires are removed and disposed of in a safe manner.

* Hotel owners should make sure proceedures are in place to "promptly" ensure all people are accounted for in the event of an evacuation.

* All staff, particularly those on duty at ight, should have experience with evacuation drills. The report said it may, "for example, involve night-time staff being asked to attend a daytime evacuation drill and/or mock drills taking place during 'night shift' hours".

The fire at the resort broke out after a plastic bag of ash was left in a concierge cupboard near the hotel’s reception area by night porter Christopher O’Malley.

The ash set light to newspapers and kindling, with the resulting blaze destroying much of the oldest part of the hotel as well as resulting in the deaths of Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson and the evacuation of 200 other guests.

Mr O’Malley was handed a community payback order at Dumbarton Sheriff Court in January 2021 as a direct alternative to jail, and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of others in the course of his work.

The hotel’s owners, Cameron House Resort (Loch Lomond) Limited, were fined £500,000 ­after pleading guilty to a similar charge – reduced from £750,000 because of their plea.