Altens recycling plant fire investigation fails to find cause for blaze

A probe into a major fire which burned for five days at an Aberdeen recycling centre has failed to find a cause for the blaze.

More than 100 firefighters battled the flames at the Suez plant in the Altens area in July.

It took fire crews nearly 120 hours to leave after the blaze broke out and as a result, some waste was required to be taken almost 300 miles away to County Durham.

A joint investigation into the incident with Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) concluded that the fire was accidental, but the cause was undetermined.

A SFRS spokesperson said: “A joint investigation with Police Scotland into the Altens recycling centre fire incident has concluded. The incident was recorded as an accidental fire with the cause being undetermined”.

An Aberdeen City Council spokesperson said: “The Altens East facility has been severely damaged and will require significant repair. However, in the long term, it is not anticipated that this will have a significant impact on bin collections.

“Collections have continued as normal and are not expected to change at this time. Contingency arrangements are in place to deal with both waste and recyclables and we can assure our residents that their materials continue to be recycled.”

The spokesperson added: “The SFRS findings follow a thorough investigation, and we thank them for their efforts in attempting to determine the cause of the fire and note their conclusion that the event was accidental.

“The fire caused substantial damage which will require extensive repair. However, thanks to the efforts of employees at the site and Aberdeen City Council’s Waste and Recycling team, only one days collections were impacted and services, including recycling will continue as normal thanks the continencies we have in place.”