Chiefs admit to firefighter death failings
Service guilty of safety breaches over bar fire tragedy
FIRE chiefs have admitted breaching health and safety at work legislation almost six years after the death of a firefighter tackling a blaze at a pub.
Ewan Williamson, 35, who was the first firefighter to die tackling a fire in the history of the former Lothian and Borders brigade, became trapped in conditions of zero visibility and extreme heat.
He was tackling a fire in the Balmoral Bar in Edinburgh’s Dalry Road on July 12 in 2009 wearing breathing apparatus when he died.
Colleagues who tried to rescue him were faced with the bar floor collapsing and flames coming up from the basement where there was an intense glow “similar to flowing lava”.
The unitary Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), which is the successor to Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Board and the country’s other brigades, pled guilty to a single charge at the High Court in Edinburgh arising from the incident.
It admitted failing to adequately train firefighters to make sure close personal contact was maintained during firefighting and rescue operation.
It also admitted failing to provide firefighters, including Mr Williamson, with plant and a system of work that was, so far as reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health as it failed to have in place effective systems of radio communication and implementation of procedures for firefighters using breathing apparatus on the date of the incident.
It also admitted failing to adequately monitor and ensure attendance by firefighters at training courses, and failing to maintain accurate training records in the year leading up to it.
The SFRS had originally faced three charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act containing more wide-ranging allegations, including an accusation that it failed to adequately identify the risks to personnel carrying fire fighting and rescue duties at the Balmoral Bar.
Mr Williamson became trapped at a ground floor toilet in an operation to fight the fire and rescue residents from flats above the pub.
The court heard that he was working as part of a two-man team who went into the bar with other colleagues using breathing apparatus. He was paired with a trainee firefighter as they took in a hose and went into a basement where bottles of spirits and carbon dioxide cylinders were stored.
After a first trip into the premises they returned again but it became too hot to remain in the basement.
Advocate depute Iain McSpor- ran said: “The heat had become unbearable and in their view it was too dangerous to continue.”
But on reaching a hatch at the bar the firefighters went in different directions.
Mr Williamson turned left and went into a gents toilet and his colleague went right and on to the main entrance.
He was asked where MrWilliamson was and said “he is right behind me.” But MrWilliamson sent a radio reply saying: “I’ll be there in a minute boss, I’m stuck. I think I’m stuck in the toilet.” His colleague went back into the bar in a “selfless and courageous” act, despite being in breach of procedure, the court heard.
A post-mortem examination found the exact cause of Mr Williamson’s death was uncertain. Defence counsel Peter Gray QC said: “This was, on any view, an isolated failing by an organisation with an excellent safety record.”
The judge, Lord Uist, deferred sentence on the SFRS, who face being fined, until next month.
‘‘ The heat had become unbearable and in their view it was too dangerous to continue