Patient pulled from burning ambulance

MEDICS had to pull a patient to safety from their own burning ambulance after it burst in to flames on a motorway, it was revealed yesterday.

The ambulance caught fire on the M9 while taking an adult patient from Stirling Royal Infirmary to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.

A doctor and nurse who were on board helped the ambulance crew take the patient onto the hard shoulder.

The incident ended after a replacement ambulance was sent out by the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) and the crew was able to continue its journey to the hospital in the capital.

The fire, which happened at about 10:30pm on Sunday near the Boroughmuir junction of the M9, is thought to have been started by an engine fault, with compressed oxygen on board causing the flames to spread rapidly throughout the vehicle.

The ambulance was completely written off. It will cost 100,000 to replace the vehicle and all the equipment that was destroyed in the fire.

Ambulance chiefs said they were now carrying out a full investigation.

An SAS spokesman said: "There was a patient on board the vehicle, accompanied by a doctor and a nurse from Stirling. The vehicle developed a problem and then caught fire. The patient was removed from the vehicle.

"When this information was passed on, we immediately sent out a replacement. The patient and crew were transferred and continued the journey to the Western without any problems."

He added: "Thankfully no-one was injured, and the patient suffered no adverse effects as a result of this."

Two fire appliances were sent from Falkirk to deal with the blazing ambulance, while a fire crew from Livingston, West Lothian, also arrived at the scene.

The SAS spokesman added: "A replacement vehicle from our back-up fleet will be providing cover in the area.

"A full investigation to establish exactly what caused the problem is now under way and we will be making an insurance claim in due course."

A Central Scotland Fire Service spokeswoman said: "The fire investigation showed there was a fault in the engine. This is where the fire started, and because the ambulance was carrying compressed oxygen it caused the fire to spread rapidly.

"The whole vehicle was damaged."

A spokeswoman for Scotland Patients' Association said the incident was cause for concern, and said it was seeking to find out more.

She added: "It would have proved very frightening for the patient at what was already a stressful time."You cannot legislate for something like this, but if it is a recurring fault or badly maintained vehicle, then something has to be done."

A spokesman for the RAC said it was aware of similar instances involving ambulances but believed they were rare.

Already this year an ambulance in the Cotswolds and one in Northern Ireland have burst into flames while on 999 call-outs, and two years ago the Welsh ambulance service launched an inquiry after three of its vehicles caught fire.