Residents evacuated after asbestos found at blaze

A large fire has broken out at an industrial estate.

Almost 50 firefighters worked throughout yesterday afternoon tackling the blaze in Biggar Road Industrial Estate in Cleland, North Lanarkshire.

They had set up a precautionary 200 metre exclusion zone around the area when they came across cylinders of acetylene, a gas used as a fuel and a chemical building block. The safety zone was later removed.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said the fire was in a large industrial unit. No one was injured in the blaze.

Incident commander Gary Wallace said: "This has been a major blaze in a large industrial unit. Additional worries for us has been the 3 acetylene cylinders on site, the roof, which has been confirmed as asbestos, and a 1,000 litre diesel tank. These additional issues required residents to be evacuated from nearby homes. That exclusion zone has now been lifted and residents have been escorted back to their homes."