Death-fall fireman: I was following orders

Published on Thursday 5 August 2010 19:48

A SENIOR fire officer said he was only following orders when he helped rule out the use of vital safety equipment on members of the public.

Charles McGrattan was deputy director of operations for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue when Alison Hume fell down a mineshaft in Ayrshire two years ago.

A fatal accident inquiry has already heard how ordinary firefighters wanted to go down the hole to rescue the 44-year-old mother of two.

However, new health and safety guidelines which had been introduced just months before the accident insisted that Safe Working at Height equipment was to be used only to rescue firefighters.

Even when the new rules were being drawn up, fire officer John Bowman warned his boss the new policy was "a disaster waiting to happen".

But yesterday, the man he warned said he dismissed Mr Bowman's concerns because his own boss, David Hutchison, had already ruled that the kit was not to be used on civilians.

Mr McGrattan, 55, told the final day of the death inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court: "I accepted what the director of training told me - that this was the way he wanted the equipment deployed.

"I accepted that was the way."

Ms Hume's family's lawyer, Gregor Forbes, asked him: "Effectively, it does not matter what concerns Mr Bowman raised, the decision had already been made?"

Mr McGrattan replied: "Yes."

There were gasps of disbelief from Ms Hume's mother, Margaret, 66, throughout Mr McGrattan's evidence before Sheriff Desmond Leslie.

The firefighter also admitted it might have been possible to use the equipment to save the woman. Sheriff Leslie asked Mr McGrattan: "If it can be used on a firefighter, why can it not be used on a person in the same circumstances?"

Mr McGrattan replied: "The use of Safe Working at Height equipment in a rescue is dependent on the condition of the casualty."

Procurator-fiscal Nancy Beresford pushed him: "What is your evidence? Is it that the equipment can be used or not?"

Mr McGrattan replied: "Perhaps, in certain circumstances, it could have been used."

Ms Hume plunged 50ft down a disused mineshaft in Galston, while walking home across fields late one night in July 2008.

The lawyer lay in the pit for more than six hours while rescuers deliberated at ground level about what to do.

Ms Hume suffered a heart attack as she was being raised to the surface and died shortly afterwards at Kilmarnock's Crosshouse Hospital.

Six days of evidence was heard in March, but the sheriff ordered the inquiry to be reopened after he was contacted personally by Mr Bowman, who drew up the new health and safety rules for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.

Yesterday, his boss said he was unable to recall what Mr Bowman had called "heated discussions" over the affair.

He said: "He expressed what he wanted to express, but no way would I describe it as heated.

"If John was concerned about what he was being asked to do, he could have discussed it with the director of operations, his trade union or raised a grievance.

"He at no time said he did not want to be involved in it."

After Ms Hume died, Mr Bowman had earlier told the court, he confronted Mr McGrattan and said to him: "I told you this would happen."

Yesterday, Mr McGrattan said he could recall there was a press cutting about Ms Hume's death on Mr Bowman's notice-board but, otherwise, his memory of the meeting was not perfect.

He said: "I can't recall the full detail. We met in his office but I cannot recall the detail of what was said.

"I had limited knowledge of the incident [Alison's death] other than what I had read in the paper.

"I did not want to introduce hearsay. I chose not to develop the conversation."