A Cowdenbeath woman has described how she “literally felt the walls of my home vibrating” due to the noise triggered by a weekend incident at Fife Ethylene Plant.
The Mossmorran plant, operated by ExxonMobil Chemical Ltd, had to be shut down and restarted after a valve failure in the early hours of Saturday caused the release of high pressure steam.
Charlotte Rae said that, like others, she was accustomed to the routine flaring operations. It was not this that caused the widespread alarm, she said, but the “incredible noise” which happened before the plant shut down and the subsequent flaring.
“Although the flaring does raise many concerns amongst local residents within close proximity to the plant, we are accustomed to both the noise and light pollution of routine flaring,” she explained.
“This incident was something completely different. It was the incredible noise that alerted many during the tripping of the plant to its safety mode.
“The noise was such that it could clearly be heard by myself whilst wearing noise-cancelling headphones. I live approximately a mile from the plant and initially it sounded as if there was a low-flying, turbo-propelled jet overhead.
“However, after a minute or so the noise persisted and it was at this point that I became extremely fearful. The magnitude of the noise was such that I could literally feel the walls of my home vibrating, it was so violent.”
Miss Rae said it woke her mother. She was also frightened by the noise, which lasted around 20 minutes.
During this time the two women became increasingly anxious over the cause. The police were called, and they reported that they had received several similar calls.
Miss Rae was logged onto a social networking site and commented on the events unfolding.
“It was at this point that many of my friends replied to my post stating that they had either been woken by the noise or were incredibly frightened,” she said. “Some as far as Kelty and Crossgates were woken.
“All who heard the noise and experienced the incident agreed that this was something completely different and abnormal to anything they had ever heard before.”
Many said they had never experienced such an event in the plant’s operational existence.
“This was entirely altogether a different animal and something never experienced previously,” added Miss Rae.