Pupils were sent home in fear of toxic fumes when a Dundee factory packed with half a million batteries erupted in flames.
Firefighters were met by a wall of fire at the factory.
The May 2001 blaze at the TDI Batteries plant at the Claverhouse Industrial Estate would rank as one of the city’s worst but remains largely forgotten.
That’s because it happened two months after devastating blazes at Morgan Academy and Logie School, which both live long in the memories of Dundonians.
In 1991 American-owned battery company TDI set up manufacturing at the Wester Gourdie Industrial Estate and became one of the fastest-growing manufacturers in the UK before moving to the Claverhouse Industrial Estate at the height of its operation.
The Dundee-based company employed more than 850 people to make lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones.
How the drama unfolded
The alarm was raised at 1pm following a “huge explosion”.
The factory’s approximately 250 staff were evacuated and some fell over in the melee and had to be helped up in the frantic rush to make for the exit.
Firefighters rushed to the scene as a huge blaze engulfed the factory, sending a thick, black cloud of what was feared to be toxic smoke drifting westwards.
The sky turned black.
Workers reported the immediate chaos that broke out in the building.
One employee from the assembly room said: “After the explosion, everyone just started screaming. It was unbelievable. I have not seen or heard anything like it.
“We just started running out of the building. A few people fell but we went back to help them up – hopefully everyone is all right.”
Another employee said: “It just went up like a tinder box.”
Tayside Fire Brigade’s telephone lines were jammed as people from across Dundee attempted to report the blaze, which could be seen for miles.
Police were asking employees to move back hundreds of feet from the scene for fear of coming into contact with the smoke.
There were real concerns the smoke was toxic.
The nearby Mill O’ Mains Primary School was immediately evacuated.
All homes in the immediate vicinity, and homes to the east and the north of the blaze, were also cleared.
A huge crowd of people from Fintry and Mill O’ Mains gathered to watch the firefighters attempting to put out the conflagration at the crumbling plant.
The plant stored more 500,000 batteries, containing a number of potentially dangerous heavy metals, such as cadmium and nickel.
Firefighters had to contend with the possibility that the water would have caused some dangerous chemical reactions with the metals.
They decided it would be safer to let the flames die out naturally.
But more than 100 hours after black smoke began billowing out of the building, pockets of fire were still burning in the factory.
Assistant Divisional Officer Graham Hynie of Tayside Fire Brigade suggested that it could take several more days before the fire was finally out.
That’s exactly what did happen.
Nearly a week after the blaze first emerged, fire investigators said they believed the explosion erupted in an area where batteries were being recycled.
Close examination of the building revealed the fire burned at 1600-1800C, which is almost twice as hot as a typical house fire.
This accounted for the rapid collapse of the building.
How bad was the blaze that ripped through the TDI Batteries plant?
One Kingsway office worker, who saw the cloud of smoke as it rolled across the city’s skyline, said: “Having witnessed the Morgan Academy blaze from the very same window, I can say that (the TDI fire) puts it very much in the shade.”
Within a week of the fire, TDI Batteries was back in operation in nearby temporary premises provided by the council.
But there was further bad news in June when the company announced it was cutting half of its 190-strong workforce in Dundee.
City engineer Ken Laing said that the original TDI factory had been severely damaged by the fire, leaving it in a dangerous and contaminated condition.
In August 2001 the decision was made to demolish and clear the site.
New beginnings
TDI Batteries was absorbed into Axeon Holdings in 2004.
The new company, Axeon Technologies, went on to become pioneers in electric and hybrid automotive systems.
It even worked on the McLaren P1 Hypercar!
The fire at TDI Batteries was to prove a powerful conclusion to a trio of huge fires, following those blazes at Logie and Morgan back in March 2001.
Unfortunately, just like the TDI Batteries blaze, there was no time for the 60 firefighters that arrived at Logie School in March 2001 to turn the tide.
Within 30 minutes of its devastating fire being discovered at 9pm, around 50% of the roof was ablaze.
Initial investigations suggested the B-listed building was deliberately set alight in the upper reaches of the building.
Evidence of forced entry to the building was detected and a group of youths was seen running away from the scene shortly before the blaze took hold.
Exactly one week later, the phones at Tayside Fire and Rescue Service started ringing at 5.17pm with reports of smoke seen on the horizon.
Five minutes later, they had received a further nine or 10 calls – all reporting the same thing.
The Morgan Academy blaze resulted in a further 35 calls to emergency services, some even coming from Fife.
Firefighters reached the scene at 5.23pm and immediately requested more equipment from control.
But it was an impossible fight to put out a sea of fire with low water pressure.
After five to 10 short minutes the firefighters inside the building were evacuated with the emergency whistle signal.
The chances of the roof collapsing were reported as substantial.
By the end of the night, the roof had caved in and all three floors of the academy had fallen in.
However, almost immediately after the blaze the education committee unanimously approved a proposal that Morgan Academy be reinstated on its Forfar Road site.
The rebuild took three years and the Dundee school officially reopened in November 2004.
Despite the new build accommodating 100 fewer pupils than the original, the restoration won several awards including the British Building Maintenance Award and the Green Apple Gold Award.
It also secured a National Heritage Champion award, one of only four projects in Britain to be so honoured.
The additional blazes in 2001, at Logie School and Morgan Academy, were one of the reasons council houses saw an above-inflation rise in rent prices for 2002.
The rents were raised to compensate for the increased cost for fire insurance.
However, despite these increased costs caused by the fires, not a single life was lost in any of the disasters.
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