Councillor who failed to dial 999 over fire fears at school 'just a balloon'

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 21:51

THE head of a Scottish fire authority was branded a "balloon" yesterday after he tried to contact the firemaster on his mobile phone to report a suspicious smell at the secondary school where he is employed as a teacher.

Councillor Mike Raeburn, who is the chairman of the Grampian Joint Fire and Rescue Board, was criticised by firefighters' union officials and opposition councillors for his failure to evacuate the school and to dial 999 at the height of the alert at Aberdeen's Northfield Academy.

Mr Raeburn, who is a technical teacher at the school, instead decided to try to contact David Dalziel, the local brigade's chief fire officer.

Mr Dalziel was not available but an appliance was sent to the school to investigate after the councillor spoke to another senior fire officer.

Alan Paterson, the Grampian branch secretary of the Fire Brigades' Union (FBU), accused Mr Raeburn of "abusing" his position as chair of the fire authority.

"We are acting on our members' concerns that such a lethargic approach has been taken here by Councillor Raeburn when there was such a potentially serious life risk – kids in a school and a suspicious smell," he said.

"He should have applied the fire authority's own recommendations of raising the alarm, calling the fire brigade and getting out and staying out.

"But he didn't even apply his own employer's procedures and Northfield Academy has written to the FBU reassuring us that they do not condone his actions and that he had been admonished."

His criticisms were backed by Councillor Willie Young, the secretary of the Labour group on Aberdeen City Council.

"The man's a balloon," he said. "There is a suspicious smell in a classroom and, instead of phoning the fire brigade and getting them to attend, he phones the chief fire officer.

"Then a fire appliance arrives at the school to find the kids are still inside. It's unbelievable. And the question now is whether he is a fit and proper person to be chair of the fire authority."

Mr Raeburn, who is a Liberal Democrat councillor on Aberdeenshire Council, denied he had abused his position and said it was "normal practice" to seek advice from the fire service on such matters.

He insisted there had been no risk to pupils' safety and said he would have dialled 999 and ensured the school was evacuated if there had been signs of smoke or fire.

Peter Murray, the assistant chief fire officer, defended the convener's actions. He said: "A member of Northfield Academy staff, who just happens to also be convener of the fire board, called the fire service for some advice on a situation that he had discovered in one of the classrooms.

"We then dealt with it as we felt appropriate. It was a very, very minor problem which did not require any intervention by our staff in terms of extinguishing any fire or dealing with any incident. The fire service is always available to give advice."

The incident had been traced to dust which had been "slightly heated" by a transformer in a machine in the classroom.