Multimédia > Accidents > STV - Wind turbine bursts into flames as hurricane-force winds hit Scotland
December 8, 2011
by Mike Farrell
The turbine in a North Ayrshire wind farm caught fire on Thursday afternoon as storms hit the country.
Fire: The wind turbine in North Ayrshire went up in flames on Thursday. Pic: © Stuart McMahon
A wind turbine went up in flames as gust of up to 160mph battered parts of Scotland.
The turbine in a North Ayrshire wind farm caught fire on Thursday afternoon.
Fire engines attended the blaze which died out after a matter of minutes at the wind farm situated above Ardrossan at around 3.40pm.
Ardrossan resident Stuart McMahon said the turbine had not been in operation due to the severe weather warning.
Mr McMahon, who captured the spectacular fire in photos, added: "I didn’t hear any explosion or anything, but my wife shouted for me to come down and see the fire.
"There are around 13 or 15 wind turbines in the farm above Ardrossan. They were all off today because of the high winds, so something has obviously shorted out and gone on fire.
"The fire was out quickly, but some debris fell from it and drifted quite a distance in the winds. The fire brigade are there, but the turbine was turning in the wind for a while after the fire."
Another resident, Tom Young, caught the blaze on video. He said: "Loads of fire engines and police have been called out, but the fire was out pretty quickly.
"It was quite spectacular to say the least."