200,000 young salmon lost in Grieg Seafood fire

Around 200,000 parr (juvenile salmon) were lost after a fire broke out at Grieg Seafood’s hatchery in Girlsta on Wednesday afternoon.

The rest of the 3 million fish at the hatchery were saved, according to the company, which also confirmed that no employees were hurt during the incident.

Two appliances from Lerwick fire station and one from Scalloway attended the scene just off the A970, where one hose reel jet and dry powder were used.

The incident was first reported at 3.18pm and over by 4.47pm, according to a Scottish fire and rescue spokeswoman.

Part of the equipment in the parr unit was damaged, but the building as well as the egg, fry and smolt units were not impacted.

 The fire started in the oxygen delivery system. The company is currently investigating what happened, to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Managing director Grant Cumming said: “Most importantly, no employees got hurt during this incident.

“Staff did exactly what they were trained to do in such events, which minimized the impact of the fire. I want to thank the team at Girlsta for their prompt action and problem solving which have minimized the scale of the incident.

“I also want to thank the Shetland Fire Brigade and our engineering supplier Ocean Kinetics for responding so quickly. We will go through all aspects of the incident to prevent it from happening again.”

Production at the hatchery is ongoing as normal, according to Grieg Seafood, with the event not having a “significant economic impact on the company