There was a bit of excitement yesterday afternoon when I was covering calls as a major blaze at an industrial site was spotted by a colleague – you could hardly miss it as flames and thick black smoke was pouring from the site.

I put in a few calls to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service but there was very limited info as it was still an ongoing incident.

I still managed to get three stories online before heading out for an interview I had arranged that evening.

I followed it up today and got more info from both the fire service, and the company involved in the demolition of the site, for a final update this afternoon. The full story will be in Tuesday’s paper.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of a major blaze at an industrial site near Inverness.

Firefighters spent more than seven hours tackling the fire after thick black smoke and flames were spotted pouring from the former Norbord plant at Dalcross, now part of West Fraser, yesterday.

The alarm was raised at 3.41pm and a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said that a total of seven appliances were sent to the scene – including a height vehicle.

The spokesman said they were able to leave the scene at 11pm the same day and they used water jets and ground monitors during the operation.

It is understood the fire was in a part of the site currently being demolished – although the project has been temporarily halted as a result of the fire.

A spokesman from the Authentick Training Centre, which is involved in the demolition, said thankfully there were no injuries and they were waiting for the conclusions of the investigation as to the “cause and consequence”.

• As the article appeared today on The Inverness Courier website