A MAJOR blaze at a recycling plant in Renfrewshire caused rush-hour travel chaos.
More than 60 firefighters tackled the flames which ripped through the industrial yard of the WRC Recycling plant in Floors Street, Johnstone, last night.
Giant bundles of plastic, packed for recycling, burned from around 5.30pm well into the night and nearby homes were evacuated.
The plant is close to the railway line between Johnstone station and nearby Milliken Park and trains were prevented from travelling along the line.
At the height of the blaze last night, the sky was lit up by the flames and thick, choking smoke filled the air.
WRC owner Robert Capper said: "The fire brigade seemed to have contained it to only within our yard, thankfully.
"We just hope that the flames haven't spread to the building, because there is a lot of expensive equipment in there."
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said it had several calls from the public at around 6pm and fire engines rushed to the scene.
Late last night it was still not known how the fire started and a full investigation is expected to be carried out when the area is safe.
A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said: "Fire crews attended a large fire and are still at the scene. It is anticipated crews will be at the scene for some time."
Train services between Johnstone and Kilwinning were suspended and a replacement bus service drafted in.
Other train services affected were on routes to Paisley Gilmour Street, and from Glasgow Central to Ayr, Largs and Ardrossan.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article