Black smoke billows from Norbord mill outside Inverness as fire crews race to scene

Seven appliances and 40 crew members rushed to a blaze at the Norbord mill outside Inverness.

Dark smoke could be seen billowing from the building on Thursday afternoon.

The fire service said it received a call about the incident just after 3.30pm.

At its peak, there were seven fire appliances battling the blaze as well as a height vehicle.

It is understood efforts have now been scaled back, with only two appliances remaining at the mill.

Earlier in the afternoon, a spokesman from the fire service said: “We were called to a commercial property about a fire in a chimney at 3.41pm.

“Seven appliances are now at the scene and one height vehicle.

“We have 40 firefighters at the scene. There are no reports of casualties.”

Eyewitnesses said ambulances and police were also on scene.

Norbord is owned by West Fraser.

The Inverness mill – known locally as the “cloud factory” – is one of the largest Oriented Strand Board (OSB) producers in Europe. Its products are used in the construction trade.

Following a resolution to the situation, SFRS issued a stop message at 10.23pm and the last appliance left the scene at just before 11pm yesterday.