Still no lifeboat plans one year after Loch Awe tragedy

Published on Tuesday 22 June 2010 21:06

A FIRE chief has admitted that more than a year after a loch tragedy which claimed four lives there is still no local rescue service boat available.

Paul Connelly, 44, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service's area commander for Argyll and Bute told a fatal accident inquiry in Oban that Loch Awe still did not have a dedicated Zodiac rescue boat despite the deaths.

But he revealed that he is currently looking at the possibility of basing a Zodiac boat at nearby Lochgilphead to serve the district's numerous inland lochs and waterways.

On the night that Glasgow men Craig Currie, 30, Thomas Douglas, 36, William Carty, 47, and Stephen Carty, 42 died on Loch Awe, emergency service workers had to listen to the men's cries for help for over an hour as they waited for a fire service boat to arrive from Renfrew, 70 miles away.

Procurator-fiscal Craig Harris asked Mr Connelly if there was still no rescue boat on Loch Awe.

Mr Connelly replied: "Unfortunately, that is the correct assumption.

"We have no resource here, no agency has any resource here, to cover that eventuality, to cover anyone going into any (inland] water or any (inland] loch in Argyll." He said there were training issues that must be answered before a boat could be based in Argyll, but did not think these were insurmountable.

Mr Connelly said that he believed his firefighting team had done everything they possibly could, with the resources they had, on the night of the Loch Awe tragedy.

Since the tragedy lessons have been learnt, he said all fire appliances now carried enough life jackets for all crew members – essential for shoreline work, as a ruling forbids firefighters from going within three metres of the water without one.

The brigade has also looked at the need for a recognised marker system, to mark the scene of water accidents, and new Firelink radio systems mean communication between police, fire and ambulance personnel has improved.

Mr Connelly also claimed that Argyll is not a particularly busy area for water-based accidents.

He added: "From our records I can't find more than ten water-based rescue incidents in the last ten years in the Argyll and Bute area."

He said funding was limited and it was important to ensure resources were based at the best locations.

Mr Connelly said he believed "prevention and education" were the best way to avoid more water accidents.

He said: "Prevention is always going to be better than cure," but added: "As we have seen in this tragedy it's people that have come into Argyll and Bute, so it needs to be a message that is spread wider than just the Argyll and Bute area."

The inquiry continues today.