Edinburgh fire crews rushed to the Rockstar North offices on Monday at 5 am BT after a reported “explosion in a boiler room,” according to The Herald and Edinburgh Live. Fire crews stayed on the scene at the Grand Theft Auto VI developer’s office for three hours, working to secure “structural damage” to the building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the incident.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said, “We were alerted at 5.02 am on Monday, 19 January to attend an incident on Holyrood Road, Edinburgh,” in a statement to The Herald. “Operations Control mobilised three fire appliances and specialist resources to the scene, where firefighters worked to secure structural damage at a commercial building. There were no reported casualties and crews left the scene at 9.21 am.”
It’s unclear what caused the reported explosion at the Rockstar North offices, as the situation continues to be investigated by Police Scotland, and the area reportedly remains cordoned off. Beyond the lack of reported casualties, no injuries have been reported either, a thankful result likely due to the fact that the incident happened so early in the morning.
While thankfully, no one was hurt from the incident, it’s unclear how far the reported “structural damage” goes, and what other damage the fire caused to the building and the interior offices. Neither Rockstar or Take-Two Interactive have published a statement regarding the incident, though with Rockstar North being the lead studio for Grand Theft Auto VI, it’s likely we’ll hear something from Rockstar or Take-Two soon, even if it is just a statement directed towards the company’s shareholders and not players, to say whether or not the incident will result in yet another delay fro GTA VI.
It’s also perhaps the most unlikely way anyone thought we’d see the Rockstar North offices back in the news, as the Edinburgh office has been the center of a different story for the last few months. Back at the end of October 2025, Rockstar fired 34 workers, several from the Rockstar North offices, with others scattered across the UK and an additional three in Toronto, alleging the workers had been leaking confidential information.
The workers and their union, the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), deny the allegations and instead accuse Rockstar of union-busting. The IWGB has filed legal claims against Rockstar, and most recently had its bid for interim relief for the fired workers denied by a UK judge.
The firings have led to several protests outside of the Rockstar North offices, and Rockstar and Take-Two offices across the globe, including in Paris, New York, and at the Rockstar Toronto offices in Canada, where Wccftech spoke with one of the workers fired from Rockstar Toronto and the CWA Canada media union that organized the demonstration.
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