Firefighters tackle blaze in Chemical Warehouse

Crews work through the night to tackle intense heat and flames

MORE THAN 70 firefighters have worked through the night battling intense heat and flames to tackle a fire in a chemical storage warehouse in Twechar.

At around 2.20am crews were mobilised to the warehouse in the town's Gavell Road following reports of a fire.  On arrival at the incident, firefighters were faced with a developing fire and set up two large bore 'ground monitor' hoses to deliver large volumes of water to prevent the flames spreading to adjacent buildings.

At the height of the blaze, the fire was so intense that heat started to affect pallets of stored materials and vehicles outside the building.

As a precaution, 12 people were evacuated from nearby houses and farms, but all have now been allowed to return their homes.

As SFR's Technical Support Team worked with warehouse management to identify what chemicals were inside the warehouse, crews secured the safety of neighbouring farmland and the nearby River Kelvin by ensuring that any water used for firefighting operations was contained within the site. SFR is continuing to work closely with representatives from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, who are also on  the scene to ensure all necessary steps are taken to protect the environment in the surrounding area.

To ensure the safety of members of the public and the SFR crew, the B8023 has been closed to all traffic in the immediate vicinity.

Firefighters remain at the scene this morning dealing with small pockets of fire at the now contained incident.

SFR will now undertake a full joint investigation into the cause of the fire with Strathclyde Police.