Aberdeen garage fire forces A96 road closure

THE main Aberdeen to Inverness road was closed to all traffic this morning as more than 35 firefighters tackled a major blaze at a garage in Keith.

Firefighters tackle the blaze. Picture: Twitter/duncmck7

The A96, which passes through Keith, was closed to traffic following a fire at the DC George garage in the town’s Regent Street, just off the main trunk road.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service announced shortly after midday that the blaze had been successfully extinguished.

A spokesman said: “One of the issues for firefighters at the scene of the fire, other than the blaze and the smoke, was the presence of acetylene cylinders. These have now been cooled to safe levels.”

Station Manager Shaun Burns, the incident commander, said: “Our crews did an excellent job today and put in a huge amount of effort to bring this fire under control. When we arrived and realised there were acetylene cylinders involved we had to tailor our response appropriately.”

He added: “The garage itself was standalone and therefore there was no risk to other properties in the area. The incident is now under control and our crews will remain at the scene and continue the damping down operation.”

No one was injured, and there were not believed to be any residents within the houses adjacent to the garage.