Flames engulfed Perth’s Wyllie Recycling site in February 2012, sending thick plumes of black smoke belching across the city’s skyline.
The inferno was one of the fiercest local firefighters had tackled in many years and it took hours to extinguish.
The family firm was forced to the brink of closure by the disaster and had to lay off staff in a desperate bid to survive.
Almost two and half years after the blaze, bosses were fined £6,000 after they admitted the fire had taken hold as a result of their own negligence.
Sheriff William Wood told them: “The most concerning feature was, perhaps, not the fire itself but the potential for loss of life.”
The firm had previously boasted a spotless safety record but Perth Sheriff Court was told there were major failings on February 16 and 17 2012 that contributed to the fire.
CCTV footage showed smoke, sparks and then a burst of light coming from the rear of the Wyllie site on the Inveralmond Industrial Estate as the fire began.
Once started, the fire spread quickly and eventually consumed buildings, trees and an estimated 700 tonnes of waste on the site.
Investigations carried out by Scottish Fire and Rescue revealed that the fire had emanated from an area where industrial lithium batteries which ought not to have been accepted by the firm had been stored inappropriately.
Depute fiscal Shona McJannett said that Wyllie had been licensed to accept cardboard, paper, plastic metal, wood and mixed municipal waste.
Other items, such as batteries, were classed as “special waste” and were not to have been on the site.
She accepted that: “all waste management stations will, on occasion, receive waste that they are not licensed to receive and ill-equipped to accept.
“As such, there is provision within the licence for an area where any non-conforming or unidentified waste that is found can be stored securely and in isolation.”
In February 2012, however, these procedures were not followed and senior staff had “failed to make an appraisal of the waste to deem whether or not it was safe to remain on site”.
An audit of the site after the fire revealed a number of other prohibited batteries.
Defence advocate Ronnie Rennuci said Wyllie Recycling took the offences “very seriously” and regretted the incident, which had blemished their clean record.
“It appears that on this occasion there were a number of errors made by particular employees,” he went on.
“Root and branch reform has taken place to ensure that there is no repeat of this incident. The company found the effects of the fire extremely difficult to cope with and they were forced to make redundancies.
“At one point, after the fire, it was felt that the firm simply wouldn’t be able to recover but payment from its insurers eventually secured its survival.”
Mr Rennuci added that, though his clients had managed to return to their pre-fire number of employees and secure an operating profit, times were tough. A plan to expand was on hold pending the outcome of the case.
Wyllie admitted contravening the terms of its waste licence on February 16 and 17 2012 in relation to unidentified and prohibited waste.
The firm also accepted two charges relating to failure to inform the Scottish Environment Protection Agency that it was transporting “special waste” in the aftermath of the fire.
Picture by Phil Hannah