THIS IS NEVER GOING TO END

The heat was so intense.. I was soaked in sweat and must have lost a stone. I looked up into the sky and thought..

- JOHN DINGWALL

THE hero firefighter who saved Glasgow Central station has told of his terrifying six-hour ordeal battling the devastating inferno.

John Banach, 53, fought the blaze from the top of his 115ft high-reach ladder and was pictured exhausted on the pavement after his shift.

Telling of his epic battle to save the nearby Central Station and Grand Central Hotel, he said: "The heat was so intense.

"I was looking at the embers going way up into the sky and at the devastation below, thinking, "This is never going to end.

"The fire just kept coming but I was determined to stay in that cage for as long as it took to try to knock the fire back from the station and the hotel." The destructive blaze broke out at 3.45pm on Sunday, in a ground floor vape shop on Union Street, Glasgow.

It led to the destruction of the Union Corner building, which had stood proudly for 175 years.

Only the Gordon Street facade of the B-listed building remains standing after much of the structure, including its iconic domed roof, collapsed.

The station and hotel were saved thanks to the bravery of crews from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

John, a crew commander from Johnstone, was one of dozens who put their lives at risk to battle the blaze.

He said: "I was on call when I got a pager to say I was needed at the station.

"We mobilised and on the A77 we could see the smoke plume. The sky was grey. The smoke was unbelievable.