The blaze that broke out at the VA Tech Peebles factory in Pilton on April 12, 1999 stunned a community and threatened hundreds of jobs.
The flames were so relentless and the smoke so thick that many people initially thought there must have been a plane crash.
And yet despite the fact people could see the fire from all over the capital, there are relatively few images of the incident and even fewer bits of footage.
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Such a blaze if it broke out today would be captured by countless mobile phones and uploaded to social media in an instant for all the world to see, but this was the late 1990s.
What does exist of the infamous Pilton fire, however, is a nine-minute clip of VHS camcorder footage that has been made available on YouTube.
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Believed to have been taken by the Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, the footage shows the fire at around 3pm that day when it was at its height.
Massive explosions can be heard as fireballs are sent high up into the sky, with huge pillars of smoke dwarfing the surrounding homes in the densely populated district.
Crowds of onlookers gathered at Pilton Park to watch the drama unfold as more than 80 firefighters battled bravely to prevent the fire spreading to other parts of the electronics plant, which locals knew as Parsons Peebles.
The blaze, which began around midday in an oil-filled transformer, sparked a series of massive explosions that caused great alarm for those living in the estate nearby.
Commenting on the YouTube clip, which you can view here, FootieLad said: "I was just a 3 year old toddler when this fire took place. My mum saw the smoke looming over our flat in Drylaw, so she took me, and my 6 year old brother out for a little walk.
"We have a safe distance of about half a mile to observe the black cloud, and i will never forget seeing that dark cloud. I remember like it was yesterday."
charliestephen1 commented: "My granddad used to work there, and after the fire they had to throw everything away for insurance reasons. They threw away about 400 computers for 'smoke damage' but my granddad nabbed one and it worked perfectly fine. He still had it until he died in 2012."
The Hills of Home said: "Was working there that day. A day that I will never forget.
"After the fire I spent 1 year working in Austria at our sister company, then moved to our new factory at Bath Road Leith."
Zac Coates added: "I remember seeing the smoke from my house at Ratho Station."
While the factory was all but destroyed, there were thankfully no casualties. However, the blaze incurred a heavy toll on the community as scores lost their livelihoods.
In the aftermath of the fire Austrian firm VA Tech, who owned the factory - which had been situated in Pilton for more than a century - decided to move operations out of the district and to Leith. Around 150 workers were made redundant, with dozens being sent to plants based overseas.
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