Glasgow And Ships Of The Clyde

Tar On Fire At Ardrossan Harbour

TAR FIRE AT ARDROSSAN

FIRE BRIGADE USE FOAM COMPOUND

When a railway tanker from Irvine containing 2,500 gallons of hot tar for delivery to a ship in Ardrossan Harbour was being shunted through the shipyard area on Tuesday afternoon, it sprang a leak and spillage which flooded between the railway lines became ignited by an ember from the ashbox of the locomotive.

Railway employees immediately summoned Ardrossan Fire Brigade who, on their arrival with three major machines, were confronted with a lake of burning tar, measuring 180 feet by 40 feet, covering the double railway line and the points.

Using more than eighty gallons of foam compound the Brigade soon smothered the fire but had to stand by until 4 pm to ensure that the spillage from the fractured tank was kept under control.

The Fire Brigade afterwards expressed appreciation of the services rendered by railway and shipyard employees in removing a number of oxy-acetylene cylinders in close proximity to the burning tar.

Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald Newspaper, 25th May 1962,
Courtesy of Ayrshire Weekly Press and
Local History Library, Ardrossan.