A Place to Stand

From Sky:

"John McGarrigle has been waiting since Friday for news of his father, also called John, who was inside the Clutha pub when the police helicopter crashed into it.

He told Sky News: "I'm extremely angry my dad is lying in there.

"I was told last night that (the building) would not be getting touched (and that) no bodies were being taken out.....

"What about the dignity for the human beings underneath that police helicopter? If they've got one out, they can get the rest out."

Mark O'Prey was last seen in the Clutha bar on Friday night by a friend who went outside for a cigarette moments before the tragedy.

His worried family told Sky News they are frustrated at the inability to get information about their loved one.....
"Here we are two days later and he's still inside.

"I would hope he would do the same for me if I was lying in that pub. I'd like some answers, not (to be) fobbed off."

David Goodhew, of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said  ......"We have got to dig slowly. The building is in such an unstable condition."
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      Has the delay in searching for survivors cost lives. Nobody can say for sure but it is certainly possible.

      Nor is this the first time. Alison Hume died from a survivable fall purely because the fire service not only refused to get her out but even orevented a civilian rescue - "‘Some people have said to me that if the same thing happened again, they wouldn’t even phone 999 – they would get a rope and do the rescue themselves".

      Some years ago I denounced this behaviour in a case even closer to this crash.

      In May 2004 the Stockline plastics factory blew up a few hundred yards in the other direction (busy neighbourhood) & again on seeing it I was surprised how slowly the work of searching for people know to be buried was going. ( bodies were recovered over the next few days & it was known that several of them were alive after the explosion because they called for help on their mobile phones. The search went slowly because the authorities were unwilling to risk killing people if the debris moved. Would more people have survived if the authorities had been willing to take a few more risks to save lives?

I don't know for sure but I do know it is a question that does not get asked & it should be.

       That explosion was a couple of hundred yards from where I live and I can confirm seeing the site and being horrified at the total lack of movement when there were known to be living people under the rubble.

        At the time I wrote to a number of newspapers & broadcasters but, the Scottish media being what it is, neither letters nor news on the subject was allowed. If it had been things might have improved.

       I will be sending a letter closely based on this. We will see if it is something the media allow this time.