Call to rip up rule book in mine rescue

Published on Saturday 6 March 2010 19:20

FIREFIGHTERS should have "torn up the rule book" to rescue a woman trapped down a disused mineshaft, her boss said yesterday.

Charlie McCusker is senior partner at the law firm which employed Alison Hume when she fell down a 60ft (18m) hole, part of old mine workings near her Ayrshire home in 2008.

For the past week, McCusker has listened to evidence from a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into his colleague's death, hearing she lay seriously injured at the bottom of the shaft for six hours while discussions went on about how to rescue her.

Firefighters told the court in Kilmarnock that they had wanted to use ropes to lower a paramedic to help her and to lift Hume – a 44-year-old mother-of-two and criminal lawyer – from the shaft, but had been ordered not to by the senior officer at the scene, who cited guidelines issued just four months previously.

McCusker said: "These guys were clearly up for going down that hole and were not allowed to, and that makes me very angry. These people obviously realise this girl could have been saved.

I know what I would have done. I would have ripped up the rule book. I think we now live in a society where we have forgotten to give people discretion. When people are on a scene they have got to make decisions.

"They should not be worrying about manuals. They should be thinking about what is the right thing to do."

Her death – of a heart attack as she was finally pulled clear of the shaft by mountain rescue experts – has re-ignited concerns among firefighters about the constraints put on their work by the health and safety culture.

The FAI in Kilmarnock has been adjourned until later this month, with at least two more days of evidence to be heard. On Friday, the commanding officer at the scene, Group Commander Paul Stewart, hailed the rescue operation as a "success" as the rescue team managed to get the casualty out. He added: "Unfortunately it was not successful in terms of what happened to the casualty."

The Scottish Government and the Fire Service Inspectorate are expected to announce a review of procedures this week. Officers are likely to support the move.

One officer, who asked not to be named, said: "Firefighters are being crucified by health and safety. It is horrible to be sent to the scene of an accident and be told you can't help because of a rule or a procedure.

"If you don't want us to do anything, don't send us out to watch somebody drown or die down a hole."

At the FAI last week, Stewart, the most senior officer at the scene, explaining his decision, said: "It was not in our organisation's remit to conduct a rescue of that nature."

Firefighters at the scene disagreed. They believed they could carry out a rope rescue system designed to save firefighters on top of buildings to pull her from the mineshaft. They had already lowered one of their colleagues down the shaft to Hume and were about to put a paramedic into the hole to help when Stewart intervened. Stewart decided to wait for a mountain rescue team.

One firefighter who faced a similar dilemma is Tam Brown, who works in Perth. Three years ago he jumped into the River Tay, in spate, to save a woman who had fallen in. His manager had allowed him to do so, but his actions – firefighters are not supposed to enter water to carry out rescues – were against health and safety rules.

Brown, who is married with two teenage children, yesterday said: "I couldn't have lived with myself if I had not gone into the river that night. She was so close to dying. I asked my gaffer three times before he gave me permission. It took as much guts for him to say 'go and get her' as it did for me to go in the river.

"We went against the rules and successfully carried out a rescue."

Fire chiefs faced a huge dilemma over what to do with Brown and his boss after his 2007 heroism.

John Docherty, a recently retired health and safety expert at the Fire Brigades Union, said: "They didn't know whether to pin a medal on Tam's chest or give him a disciplinary." In the end, Brown was praised for his bravery. But firefighters say the dilemma is faced regularly.

Tayside Fire and Rescue, and several other brigades, now have water rescue teams. Several brigades, including Lothian and Borders, but not Strathclyde, have specially trained rope rescue firefighters.

A fire and rescue insider said: "What will firefighters do if they are standing by watching somebody who needs rescue and a member of the public decides to do their job for them?"

But Brian Fraser, head of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Advisory Unit, stressed the rules applied to firefighters as much as to anybody else. He added: "The challenge for firefighters is that their place of work is often inherently unsafe and unpredictable. Fire and rescue services must, therefore, continue to develop safe ways of dealing with difficult and at times dangerous situations, whilst doing all that is reasonable to maintain the safety of their firefighters.

"This is not always straightforward or easy, but it is a dilemma that is being actively addressed by the fire and rescue services in Scotland."