“Extensive” damage estimated at around £1m has been sustained after a major fire at a Fife recycling facility.
The blaze broke out at the Ladybank Waste Facility near Lower Melville Wood on Tuesday afternoon.
At the height of the incident, 12 appliances and specialist resources were dealing with the blaze.
Fire crews were still dealing with the incident as of Saturday morning.
Fife Council Chief Executive Ken Gourlay provided an update to councillors.
“Unfortunately with the conditions on the site, the fire took hold and drafted across waste piles,” he said.
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“Luckily there were no casualties but because of the extent of the fire, very little could be done.
“The damage is extensive. The recycling equipment has gone. £1m of equipment has gone. A lot of it has buckled under the heat. We have insurance on the site. From a council perspective, we will be liaising on that front but costs to resources are going to be extensive.”
At the time of speaking, Mr Gourlay said the A92 close to the facility was still closed but he said there were hopes this could reopen by Thursday afternoon.
He said domestic bin collections, at the moment, were unaffected.
“In terms of operations with domestic waste, they are continuing as normal. We are fairly confident we will be able to cope with the waste as per normal.
“We are hoping operations will not be affected which is good news in terms of recycling.”
Fife Council have confirmed that their household waste recycling centre – which is across the road from the site – has not been damaged by the fire.
However it remains closed because road access has been restricted by smoke and emergency service activity and is also currently without power.
Cupar recycling centre is to be fully opened seven days a week until Ladybank can re-open and a question and answers section is available on the Fife Council website for anyone looking for more information.
“There is still a fair bit of smoke coming off. SEPA have been on site and are monitoring that at the moment,” added Mr Gourlay.
“The wind is changing and affecting different communities at different times.”
Acknowledging speculation on the cause of the fire, the council chief said nothing had been determined.
“There has been quite a fair bit of speculation about batteries but we have not had that confirmed,” he said.
“There is going to be a review undertaken on the cause and recovery. Hopefully this is a one off but we need to take any lessons learned from this.”
Howe of Fife and Tay Coast councillor David MacDiarmid thanked council staff and the emergency services for their efforts.
He called for a meeting “as a matter of urgency” to discuss the fire.
“I have some great concerns about what could have happened and did not,” he said.
“I would like my constituents reassured that going forward if this happens again, we need to find a way of shutting it down quicker.
“They had to cancel Falkland sports day at the school today because of all the smoke coming down. I would like to seek a meeting with my other ward councillors going forward as soon as possible.”
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