Stuff rule book

The fatal accident inquiry into Alison Hume's death has been adjourned for some reason until 29 March – the media must not kick the renewed proceedings into the long grass. As well as with her family, one can only sympathise with firefighters such as Tony Hibberd (Letters, 8 March) who are appalled and ashamed at the excuses revealed so far, and welcome his reminder that "rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools".

Many of us, as the person on the spot, will have had to disobey rules (in my own minor case ignoring a specific order from my boss which, had my action not turned out for the best, would have resulted in my dismissal). Operational discipline is clearly important, but with one fireman, Sandy Dunn, already 60 feet down beside Mrs Hume for four hours and vowing "not to come up without her", were none of his 17 colleagues above prepared to say "stuff the new rule book, let's get her out"?

Some questions that I have not yet seen asked are: why the new rules do not cover mine-shaft incidents and do not reference the 24-hour mine rescue service; whether the office-based senior officer present should not have delegated operational control to one of the many other officers with far greater field experience; why the equipment they had was deemed safe for their own use but not for saving others; who was responsible for not having the correct equipment, and why could it not have been procured from base within six hours; what equipment the mountain rescuers had and whether they acted in line with their own risk assessment.

JOHN BIRKETT

Horseleys Park

St Andrews