Published: Wednesday, 9th April, 2008 12:00
Tribute to Alloa's fire rescue heroes
By Hamish Hutchinson
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Alloa fire station commander Gregor Dobbie during a training exercise.
THE dramatic story behind the rescue of the last survivor from the wreckage of the Stockline plastics factory by Alloa firefighters was retold this week.
A total of five men and four women died, and about 40 people were injured, on 11 May 2004 after the four-storey building in Glasgow crashed to the ground.
Firefighters from Central Scotland Fire and Rescue were called to the Maryhill factory just after midday armed with the latest in state-of-the-art urban search and rescue equipment.
After seven-gruelling hours the fire crews and International Rescue Corp teams managed to free worker Linda Kinnon.
Alloa station commander Gregor Dobbie coordinated the operation with International Rescue.
It was not his first experience dealing with a major disaster, having served under International Rescue in the 1980s attending the El Salvador earthquake of 1986.
He arrived at the Glasgow factory with the crew of Blue Watch, including the late John Noble. Gregor remembered, “We were told that a factory building had collapsed and a number of people were trapped inside but we didn’t realise the true extent of what had happened until we arrived.
“The first thing we were told was there were about 60 odd people unaccounted for. We found out later that 60 was actually the compliment of the factory and they weren’t sure how many were missing.
“There were obviously a number of fatalities but it wasn’t priority at that stage to remove them, the priority was to find out the ones that were alive and still trapped.”
The crew were informed that a live casualty had been found but due to the unstable structure the rescue workers weren’t able to remove her.
Armed with the most state-of-the-art rescue equipment the fire crew proceeded carefully into the debris.
“It was like a house of cards,” Gregor went on. “You had to be very careful and control any movement of debris and not destabilise what was already an unstable structure. That would have endangered not only the casualty but my personnel.”
Gradually they managed to remove Mrs Kinnon who was trapped by a plank of wood that had skewered her upper leg.
He said, “You build up a rapport with a casualty and so after seven hours everybody was happy to get her out but you can’t afford to hang about and pat yourself on the back – it was, well that’s one out, let’s get others out.
“The job that all crews did was excellent under very difficult circumstances. It was a unique situation; the kind of thing people only encounter once if they’re lucky.”
In December a camera crew came to Alloa fire station to film a reconstruction of that daring rescue to be part of a new documentary series called Britain’s Bravest.
Presented by Dermot Murnaghan, the series pays tribute to the emergency services and combines personal testimony with dramatic footage to tell the stories of some remarkable rescues. Last night (Wednesday) Channel Five was scheduled to have screened the programme.
Speaking on the show Mrs Kinnon thanked her rescuers. She said, “I think they are all wonderfully courageous people. In this world there are people who give and people who take and they are obviously givers. It’s not just a job it’s a vocation for them to look after other people and help other people.
“I’ll never forget what they did for me. There is something very very special about those people.”
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