A
woman lay injured at the bottom of a mineshaft for six hours because
health and safety rules banned firefighters from rescuing her.
Crews could only listen to Alison Hume's cries for help because
regulations said their equipment was for saving themselves but not
members of the public, an inquiry into her death heard yesterday.
The revelation sparked fierce criticism of the health and safety
culture among rescue services, with the Fire Brigades Union saying
crews were being put in an impossible position.
Mrs Hume was trapped 60ft below ground after she fell down the
disused mineshaft 120 yards from her home in Galston, Ayrshire. Fire
crews were called to the scene and a fatal accident inquiry heard that a
firefighter had volunteered to be lowered down to rescue her.
But a memo from Strathclyde Fire and 'Rescue' chiefs four months
earlier had banned the use of rope equipment for lifting members of the
public to safety, the inquiry was told.
Mountain rescue experts eventually freed Mrs Hume six hours later,
but she died after suffering a heart attack as she was taken to the
surface.
Christopher Rooney, the first senior fire officer at the scene,
admitted it would have been possible for his crew to have rescued Mrs
Hume from the shaft, had it not been for the memo.
During the hearing, solicitor Gregor Forbes asked Rooney: On the
basis of the manpower and equipment that you had available, is it your
view it would it would have been possible for the firefighters to have
brought the person to the surface before the mountain rescue team?
He replied: Yes, I believe so.
Forbes said: Your position is that, while you were supplied with
safe working-at-height equipment, while this could be used to bring up
firefighters, it could not be used to bring up a member of the public.
Rooney told the inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court: Yes, that's
correct. All 18 firefighters at the scene were trained and capable
of using the equipment, he added.
A senior MSP yesterday criticised the increasing imposition of health
and safety rules on front-line rescuers. Scottish Tory deputy leader
Murdo Fraser said: Of course, the safety of rescue workers has to be
a major consideration. But a strict adherence to health and safety rules
in such circumstances should not prevent life-saving action.
Update:
Rescued by Common Sense
15th March 2010. Based on
article
from
thescotsman.scotsman.com
Fire
services will be told to follow new non-bureaucratic guidelines
and take a sensible approach to hazardous incidents under a new
policy unveiled by the Health and Safety Executive.
HSE chiefs said the guidelines aimed to ensure firefighters could do
their jobs properly without employers flouting safety legislation.
Brigade unions welcomed the ruling, saying a balance had to be struck
between safety rules and allowing fire crews to do their job.
But one MP called for a complete overhaul of safety guidelines and
their impact on rescues after the conclusion of a fatal accident inquiry
into the death of Alison Hume.
Her family hit out at the fire service for failing to get Mrs Hume
out of the shaft, after senior fire officers ruled they did not have
proper procedures in place to lift her out.
The case has sparked criticism of a health and safety culture
among rescue services and calls for a shake-up of existing rules. The
new guidelines make it clear that fire services do not need to eliminate
all risks in rescue situations.
Fire brigades and union leaders have backed the new rules, which
acknowledge the principle that managers and firefighters need to make
decisions in dangerous, fast-moving, emotionally charged and
pressurised situations.