Hero firefighter attacks health and safety rules that 'hinder' rescuers

A FIREFIGHTER who risked his life saving a colleague from drowning in a slurry pit has criticised heath and safety regulations which he said were preventing emergency workers doing their job properly.

Allan Rodgers, 54, who retires next week after 30 years' service with Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service, spoke out after he and two colleagues received Act of Bravery awards from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.

"The job is changing now compared to when I joined 30 years ago with all the health and safety rules," he said.

"Health and safety has overwhelmed what you can and can't do. Now it's getting highlighted so much I think it hinders us doing jobs."

Mr Rodgers described how on 25 May this year he and colleagues from other services attended a fire at Levenseat Waste Management Site, West Lothian.

"It was about 9pm and starting to get dark and I noticed the watch commander from Lothian and Borders walking towards me," he said.

"I turned round and he'd disappeared. Then I heard a gagging noise and saw a white helmet coming up from the slurry pit near the ponds.

"There was a pipe nearby and I wasn't sure if it would take my weight but I decided to lean on it to try and get to him.

"I managed to pull him up and get him onto a nearby wall.

"He was sick and vomiting silage out his nose and ears.

"I heard later that the man had come to the surface twice, and thought there would be no way he's come up for a third time.

"Thankfully he managed to recover. To me I was just doing my job that night.

"I didn't ever think anything would come of it but everybody else seems to think it is worthy of a bravery award. It is what I was trained to do."

Speaking after receiving the award yesterday, Mr Rodgers, who is based at Lanark fire station, said: "(Health and safety] has always been there but it just seems it is everywhere now. Like in every other job, everything is health and safety.

"As firefighters we have always carried out risk assessments. If you go to a fire and you do not think it is safe to enter one way, you try to find another way in."

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue came in for severe criticism after its health and safety regulations prevented firefighters rescuing Alison Hume, a 44-year-old lawyer who fell into a disused mineshaft near Galston, Ayrshire, in July 2008.

Ms Hume lay for six hours before suffering a heart attack from which she died as she was brought to the surface by mountain rescue volunteers.

A fatal accident inquiry heard about a conflict among fire service personnel at the scene, some of whom wanted to descend into the hole to save her.They were stopped by senior officers, who said it was not in their "remit" to perform sub-surface rescues involving rope-based equipment.

Mr Rodgers' comments came as Strathclyde Fire and Rescue chief fire officer Brian Sweeney said more bravery award ceremonies were to be held to highlight heroic acts to counter recent negative publicity about the service.

Speaking after the awards ceremony in force headquarters in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, he said: "Traditionally we've been very poor at recognising the bravery of our officers and have tended to keep the stories to ourselves.

"This is in recognition, maybe, of the criticisms that firefighters get, where people are beginning to question whether firefighters do risk their lives."

Staying cool under pressure:

GRAEME Stevely, 22, was on his first night shift in Johnstone when he took a call about a fire in a tower block in Glasgow.

"A man said he and his pregnant girlfriend were trapped in a bathroom with no window. I reassured them, gave advice on blocking out smoke with towels and told them I'd radioed their exact position to firefighters."

Kenneth McGill, 36, based at Kilmarnock Community Fire Station, saved the life of a doctor who suffered a heart attack at the Galleon Centre gym in April.

"A nurse and myself gave CPR and then we got hold of a defibrillator and used that."