Highland estate 'shell-shocked' by woodchip inferno
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A BADENOCH estate which supplies woodchips for biomass boilers, is counting the cost of a devastating blaze on Monday which destroyed its woodchip plant.
It is feared that the inferno could cost Alvie Estate, located between Kincraig and Aviemore, hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Estate spokesman Jamie Williamson said estate workers had been "shell-shocked" by the speed with which the fire took hold.
He said: "At 4pm everything was fine. By 6pm the fire had started and by 6.30pm the shed had gone."
The 288 square metre, timber-built, metal-roofed structure contained a bank of solar panels which provided the power for a process to extract moisture from pine and larch trees.
The estate's customers include Glenfeshie Estate, Kingussie High School and Rothiemurchus among a dozen others.
Mr Williamson continued: "We will be able to carry on supplying their boilers for this year, but we have work to do to take things much beyond that. We can carry on drying wood in the round meanwhile and the weather, at least, is on our side in that."
He added: "We are insured but we bought second-hand equipment to be economical which only means that the machinery depreciates, so it all has to be assessed yet."
Fire crews came from a wide area after the alarm went up. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service first sent appliances from Aviemore, Kingussie, Grantown and Elgin.
As the blaze continued the service sent up a special welfare pod for firefighters from Balmossie in Fife.
Last watch and damping down was taken over by teams from Aberlour and Tomintoul and it was past 2am when they finally departed.
Inquires into how the blaze started began yesterday morning and initial suspicions were that a problem had occurred at the boiler, with cooling fans instead blowing flames through the building, although this has not been confirmed.
Mr Williamson has spent 18 years pioneering biomass and intends to continue providing what he argues is some of the greenest energy available, with local timber producing local supplies for local biomass heating systems.
