Scotgen gasification plant gutted by fire

Firefighters were called to Scotgens 20 million energy-from-waste facility at Dargavel Stores, Lockerbie Road, around 8am on Thursday (July 18) when members of the public reported thick black smoke rising from the site.

An estimated 70 firefighters attended the scene, while one crew was called across the border from Cumbria to help tackle the blaze.

A Scotland Fire & Rescue Service spokesman confirmed fire crews at the site had described the plant as gutted and severely damaged following the incident.

He told letsrecycle.com: The fire escalated quite quickly so we had to call in a number of crews, including one from England. We are very grateful to them for their assistance.

At the present time we are not aware of any suspicious links as to what caused the fire, but specialist investigations are still ongoing. We are keen to work with businesses to ensure the safety of those who use the site and we are happy to assist business owners on taking all necessary steps to make sure this happens.

Firefighters continued to dampen down the site for two and half days, and there were no reported flare-ups.

Assistance

A member of staff at neighbouring business Johnston Tractors, who wished to remain anonymous, said: The roofs all burnt and charred. It started burning Thursday morning and when I went past Saturday afternoon there was still smoke coming out. The fire hasnt really affected our business, and there havent been any delays.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), which also attended the blaze, said officers had detected chemicals and particulates above specific thresholds, but stated pollution risk remained minimal.

A spokesman said: The potential risk to the general public remained low, with any effects likely to have been short lived. Long term consequences associated with this incident are considered to be extremely unlikely.

On site fire water containment measures were in place to prevent run off water impacting on the local water environment and samples collected by SEPA officers during the incident are currently being tested.

Charred

The blaze follows a spate of industrial fires to hit the waste industry this month, with large-scale incidents reported at Jayplas site in Smethwick (see letsrecycle story) and SWEEEP Kuusakoskis WEEE recycling facility in Sittingbourne (see letsrecycle story).

The widespread nature of the problem has led the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) to conduct a review into safety guidance at waste transfer and recycling sites (see letsrecycle story), although Scotlands fire service was not aware of any ongoing concerns.

Opened in 2009, the Scotgen facility was the first batch gasification plant to be established in Scotland (see letsrecycle story). It was designed to process 60,000 tonnes of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, with 15,000 tonnes of solid recovered fuel (SRF) to be treated at the facility.

Scotgen were contacted by letsrecycle.com, but declined to comment.