Alison Hume inquiry: Fire service needs to adapt

Published on 30/03/2012 00:47

THE report finds that “the defining moment” in the failure to rescue Alison Hume was when Strathclyde fire services suspended their rescue and waited instead for Police Mountain Rescue to carry it out.

There was “an insufficient and inexplicable lack of focus” on the need to get her out of the mine quickly, given the fact she was cold, wet and suffering from severe injuries.

The crews at the scene “firmly believed they could safely effect a rescue but were prevented from doing so by operational commanders”.

The report recommends that the new Scottish Fire and Rescue Service should “explicitly recognise the need to adapt and improvise in unusual and difficult to define circumstances”.

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