Modest hero sets a fine example

"I DON'T think I'm a hero – I just did what anyone else would have done". Thus Andrew Rennie, the Turriff farmer who came to the aid of a female motorist trapped in a raging torrent in the River Deveron in Aberdeenshire.

He was fast asleep in his farmhouse when the phone rang alerting him to the plight of housewife Helen Catto. Could he go to her aid with a tractor? She was trapped in her car with the water rising rapidly and firemen had been unable to get to her. Mr Rennie, at great personal risk drove his tractor into the floodwater, reached the stricken vehicle and enabled firemen to undertake a rescue.

It was an intervention that almost certainly saved a life. And yesterday he received a fully deserved Testimonial on Vellum from the Royal Humane Society for his bravery.

This deed is all the more praiseworthy given the increasingly risk-averse and regulation-bound culture that now permeates the country. It stands in sharp contrast to the case that came to light earlier this month of the Ayrshire woman who fell into a disused mine shaft and lay dying as a senior fire fighting officer told his crew not to attempt a rescue for fear of further casualties.

Mr Rennie's response put his own safety as secondary to mounting a rescue that would have foundered but for his prompt response and intervention. Such bravery deserves the fullest recognition.