BRICK by brick dismantling work has begun to take down sections of the Mackintosh Building after it suffered a second fire in the last four years.

The fire on June 15 was the second to hit the iconic building which was undergoing a multi-million-pound restoration, following a smaller fire in May 2014.

But now specialists are dismantling the historic building in a bid to save some of it, with two cranes on site this afternoon (Tue).

The work is being done by expert structural engineers, Glasgow-based David Narro Associates, GSA contractor, and Coatbridge-based Reigart.

The plans have been shared with Glasgow City Council Building Standards, who have worked with the Glasgow School of Art throughout the development, and with Historic Environment Scotland.

Dominic Echlin, of David Narro Associates, said the main aim of the initial works is to "make the building safe and structurally stable".

He said: "It is important to understand that our agreed approach is the safest way to dismantle the dangerous elements of the building and, importantly, ensure there is no damage to nearby properties or risk to those working on site.

"The contractor is starting today to reduce the height of the high-level walls on the south side of the building, carefully taking down damaged and unstable masonry.

"With the machinery brought to site the contractor can work on several fronts, so after a start today in the middle of the south facade, we will quickly move on to reducing height to the top parts of the south-east corner and east facade.

"Work will then follow on the west end and then parts of north facade.

"This sequence has been determined so we keep the building as stable as possible and the dismantling controlled throughout the process."

The work will be done by manually dismantling the masonry, which will be accessed by a combination of Mobile Elevated Working Platforms (MEWP) and crane hoists.

The main crane, which was brought up to Glasgow from Sheffield, is positioned in Sauchiehall Street at the junction with Dalhousie Street.

A second crane at the junction of Sauchiehall Street and Scott Street will also be on site.

Three further cranes will be used later during work.

These will be positioned on Renfrew Street, one at the junction with Dalhousie Street and the other two opposite the Reid Building.

Masonry and brickwork will be taken down in a controlled manner with heavier high-level stonework removed and transferred via hoists.

It will then be lowered down to street level for sorting and storage off-site.

Where possible and safer to do so, plainer areas of facades will be lowered into the site for later removal.

This work is said to cause minimum danger to surrounding properties with protection provided to adjoining properties where necessary.

The work is expected to take several weeks.

But as the various phases are completed, Glasgow City Council Building Standards will assess whether it is possible to reduce the size of the exclusion cordon.