Staff at Bairds Malt, a subsidiary of Graincorp Malt, Autralia had to be evacuated following the dust explosion on Thursday. Nobody was injured in the explosion but gas and electricity were switched off at the site in Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands.
Fire crew used breathing apparatus, a main jet and a hose-reel jet to tackle the incident, believed to be a dust explosion. The fire brigade were called out to the malting company premises again two hours later to deal with a separate fire in the roof space.
A fire brigade spokeswoman said: “It appeared the first call was a dust explosion in an industrial building. We are investigating and will be liaising with site engineers.
The factory in Inverness has an annual production capacity of 45,000 tonnes of distilling malt , in Inverness.
Graincorp Malt purchased Bairds Malt in 2009 and GermanMalt/Schill Malz in 2011.