Fire chiefs delayed mine shaft rescue on safety grounds21 November 2011Senior commanders from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue delayed the rescue of a woman lying at the bottom of a disused mineshaft because they were too preoccupied with adhering to the management’s rescue policy, a fatal accident inquiry has found. Alison Hume died after spending eight hours at the bottom of the mine shaft, into which she fell at around midnight on 25 July 2008. By the time she was brought to the surface she was profoundly hypothermic and had suffered a pneumothorax, broken ribs and a broken sternum. In his determination on the inquiry published last week (16 November), the Sheriff for North Strathclyde, Desmond Leslie, said Mrs Hume’s death could have been avoided if Strathclyde Fire and Rescue had carried out a rigorous risk assessment of the situation and allowed it to prevail over its “restrictive” corporate policy, according to a report in info4fire.com’s sister magazine, the Safety and Health Practitioner, The Sheriff also found that the 44-year-old’s death could have been prevented had the following reasonable precautions been taken:
The inquiry heard that the fire service issued an internal memorandum on 14 March 2008, which stated: “[T]he SWAH equipment will not be used to effect rescues using work-positioning systems of work until further notice. In the event of circumstances arising which can only be resolved in this way, whether personnel are equipped with SWAH equipment, or not, incident commanders will request assistance with operations control from Strathclyde Police Mountain Rescue Team, Trossachs Search and Rescue Team, or, whether appropriate for coastal, cliff and shoreline mud rescues, HM Coastguard’s Rescue Teams.” However, an amended memo on 27 March 2008 gave limited licence for the use of SWAH equipment by stating: “This guidance does not preclude the use of SWAH equipment to secure any casualty to prevent their further injury, or to prevent the deterioration of the existing circumstances”. The Sheriff concluded: “An unwavering adherence to the memorandum of 14 March 2008, without greater appreciation of the limited licence provided in the later memorandum of 27 March 2008, was manifest in an inflexible and non-discerning approach to the rescue attempt.” He added: “There is little doubt that the rank-and-file firefighters in attendance were anxious to conduct a rescue as quickly as possible, but were prevented from doing so by the superiors.” Responding to the determination, Strathclyde Fire & Rescue's director of operations, assistant chief officer David Goodhew, said: "Despite the fact that mines rescue is a highly specialised skill, and fire crews are neither trained nor equipped to deal with this specific situation, the Sheriff himself acknowledged firefighting personnel risked their own lives to tend to Alison in the shaft and stabilise her condition. "Our first instinct was to bring Alison to the surface as quickly as possible using a harness. However, medical advice is that using such equipment could have put her life at extreme risk due to the serious nature of her injuries. "Specialist stretcher equipment to bring her up horizontally was seen as critical to any rescue attempt, and a decision was made to wait for police mountain rescue services to bring their equipment to the scene." In March this year Strathclyde’s chief officer, Brian Sweeney, said firefighters are more fearful of health and safety legislation and the prospect of being prosecuted, than of the dangers they face when saving lives. And In April, the HSE issued new guidance aimed at helping fire and rescue services balance their operational and health and safety duties. Read the Fatal Accident Inquiry determination    |
