Peterhead fish factory fire destroyed key areas

A MAJOR fire at a fish factory destroyed two main areas of the facility, according to its owners.

Ten fire units tackled the blaze at its peak. Picture: John Devlin

Saturday’s fire at Northbay Pelagic’s processing plant in Peterhead sent dark plumes of smoke across the Aberdeenshire town and saw nearby homes evacuated.

At its peak, 10 fire units and several specialist crews tackled the flames at the industrial site on Kirk Square.

The company said the processing lines and administration block were lost, but that it would continue to service its customers’ needs.

A statement on the firm’s website said: “On the afternoon of Saturday 17th January, Northbay Pelagic suffered a major fire in its factory which totally destroyed two main areas of our facility.

“The main processing and packing lines have been lost and the company’s office and administration block has been destroyed.

“However, key strategic areas of our facility remain fully operational and we continue to service our business and customer needs.

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“We are currently looking at all of our options going forward and we will hopefully announce our plan of action soon.

“In the meantime, we are sourcing temporary accommodation for our administration and management staff and re-establishing daily communications with all of our customers and suppliers.”

Peterhead is one of Europe’s busiest fish landing ports. The company reportedly employs around 300 people.

A full investigation into the blaze will be carried out by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), along with Police Scotland, Sepa, Aberdeenshire Council and building control.

The SFRS’s local senior officer for Aberdeenshire and Moray, David Rout, said: “This was a major fire and required a very large scale response to ensure firefighter and public safety.

“The scale of this operation required careful management and deployment of resources so as to ensure wider communities across Aberdeenshire remained unaffected and had a commensurate level of emergency cover.

“We are mindful of the economic and political impact this incident has on the Peterhead community and as such are working with partners to make every effort to bring some stability and normality back to the area as soon as is feasible to do so.”

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