New drone footage has revealed the extent of devastation of the fire at a battery recycling centre in Kilwinning.
Local, Tommy Morrison, filmed the site from above, blackened and still smoking on Tuesday. The aerial photographer lives 1.5 miles away from the site and recalled being woken by the noise of explosions on Monday night.
“I could see,” he recalled, “the flames and smoke-plume from my daughter's room. The noise woke me up, about midnight and I moved my daughter into our bedroom away from the window just as a precaution. I kept thinking about that awful Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion.”
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were, this morning, still urging residents to remain at home, two days after a fire engulfed a battery recycling centre at Kilwinning.
At 6.45am on Wednesday, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service urged residents in the surrounding area to remain at home with windows and doors shut following the fire at the Fenix battery recycling centre.
Three appliances, it said, and one height vehicle remained at the scene as crews worked to extinguish the fire. There were no reported casualties.
Around 40 firefighters attended the scene after the alarm was raised just after 10pm on Monday, April 8 to reports of a fire on Byrehill Place, Kilwinning.
Area Commander Jim Quinn said: “We continue to work with the recycling centre and partner agencies to minimise the disruption to the local community and will continue to provide updates.
“While smoke continues to be visible, we would ask that residents remain at home, and keep windows and doors closed as a precaution.
“If travelling through smoke, motorists should keep windows closed, turn off air conditioning and keep their air vents closed.”
Fenix describes itself on its website as the “first UK based multi-chemistry battery recycling operation, which provides the infrastructure, resources and research and development needs to offer a complete recycling solution for all battery types.
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The cause of the fire at Fenix is not yet known, but the Kilwinning site is not the only recycling centre to have been engulfed by flames. There have, for instance, been two fires at the LiBatt lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Wolverhampton, which recycles lithium batteries of all sizes from mobile phones to EVs.
In Germany the production hall of the SimpLi Return LiB recycling facility in Offenbach, has burned down three times, the most recent fire occurred in August 2023 and followed explosions.
In February of this year, fire broke out at a warehouse, north of Toulouse, in France, containing 900 metric tons of lithium batteries owned by recycling group SNAM. It took two days to put out.
Lithium-ion battery fires generate intense heat and considerable amounts of gas and smoke, some of which can be toxic
Fenix Battery Recycling was approached for comment but gave no response.
On Tuesday Damian Lambkin from Fenix Battery Recycling told BBC Scotland News the plant's response team had contacted emergency services, whom he thanked for the "prompt and professional handling of the incident".
He said: "While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, we are fully co-operating with the authorities by providing all necessary information and support and Fenix Battery Recycling will continue to liaise closely with emergency services, regulatory bodies, and local authorities throughout the ongoing incident."
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) are working with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Public Health Scotland to monitor the situation as a precaution.
The multi-agency response includes Police Scotland, SFRS, SEPA, Public Health, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, and North Ayrshire Council.
Investigations into the fire continue.
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