Firefighters used technology at a nearby waste water treatment works to tackle a major fire in Fife.
Crews were able to use the same water over and over again to help extinguish the blaze at the Cupar Trading Estate on July 21 thanks to the quick thinking of staff at the nearby Scottish Water site.
The teams were able to hook their fire hoses to the outlet pipes at the works just 200 metres away. Once used it flowed to a nearby Scottish Water pumping station and then back to the works so it could be put back into action.
Video of the fire is above this article
Innes Petrie, Scottish Water’s sewer response team leader, said: “In my 33 years in the water industry I have never heard of waste water which has been through the full treatment process being used to fight a fire and then to return to same works and used again the same way.
“It meant the same water was being used over and over again.
“Fire crews obviously look for water quickly from the nearest sources when looking to put out fires. When they turned up at our site we did a bit of ‘outside the box thinking’ to assist and were delighted to be able to help out.”
Scottish Water staff also monitored the flow of water to ensure it did not go into the nearby River Eden.
The scheme was led by site operator at the works, Dougie Hain.
Scottish Fire and Rescue area commander Kenny Rogers, who was the incident commander at the fire, said: “We always look to work closely with our partners to bring an incident to a swift and safe conclusion.
“This is a great example of this close partnership working and quick thinking, resulting in an unusual solution that helped us extinguish this challenging fire.
“My thanks must go to Scottish Water and all of our partners for their support throughout this incident and to our crews for their diligent efforts.”
