School access restricted by fire

Pupils at Clackmannanshire's Alva Academy will have access to the school restricted for another day as work to extinguish a factory fire continues.

Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service have been battling to put out the blaze at Benkert's cigarette filter paper printer plant since Tuesday.

At its height, the fire required more than 100 firefighters and 20 appliances to keep it under control.

The blaze also caused the temporary closure of Alva Academy.

Clackmannanshire Council said pupil and staff access to the school would be limited for safety reasons to allow firefighters and heavy appliances to gain entry to the fire site when necessary.

Pupils attending on foot are being told to access the school through Greenhead Gate on Norton Street.

Tobacco industry

Staff and school buses will be able to drive to the school along Industrial Estate Road North between 0800 and 0900 GMT.

The industrial estate where the fire began was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday resulting in many of the village's businesses being temporarily decanted to the town's Cochrane Hall.

The council said that children who were usually dropped at the school by car would not have direct access.

They have advised that such pupils be dropped at Greenhead bus stop on East Stirling Street in the village where they can enter the school by foot through the Greenhead Gate.

Fire crews were first called to the factory fire about midday on Tuesday.

When they arrived the 70mx30m plant was already engulfed in flames.

A spokeswoman for Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service said crews were in the process of damping down the remaining fire at the plant and making sure the area was safe.

Benkerts employs about 180 people at the site and exports paper for the tobacco industry, for use in products such as cigarettes, to more than 30 countries, according to the company's website.

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