A MAJOR blaze broke out at a derelict paper mill just outside of Kincardine last night.

Firefighters are still at the scene this morning dampening down the area at Kilbagie in Alloa until it is made safe.

Local council worker Paul Fair first caught sight of the fire at around 9pm as he and his wife were travelling down the M876 into Kincardine.

He told the Press: "We were travelling back from Glasgow and we could see white smoke as we were travelling down the motorway.

"As we approached we could see that a fire crew was already at the scene and another one was just arriving. At this point the smoke had turned black.

"There was still smoke rising when I checked this morning, so I can't imagine there was much left of the shed.

"This happened five years ago so I would have thought they would have put measures in place to make sure it did not happen again."

Fire crews were called to the same premises in December 2012 to tackle a blaze that had broken out in the warehouse containing clothing, mattresses and waste paper.

Clackmannanshire Council at the time expected efforts to extinguish the facility to take several days, but reassured the public that no health risks related to the dissipating plume of smoke from the site.

A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: "The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 8.54pm on Thursday, August 17 to reports of a building on fire in Kilbagie, Alloa.

"Four fire appliances were immediately mobilised to the incident which involved a derelict paper mill.

"Firefighters used powerful water jets to extinguish the flames.

"One crew remains on scene carrying down dampening down operations until the area is made safe."