Stockline Plastics Factory Explosion - Response

Response

The explosion occurred at around midday BST (11:00 UTC).The first service to attend were a Patient Transport Ambulance crew that diverted straight to the scene. This initial crew saved dozens of lives by taking control of the evacuation and pulling the injured to safety. Approximately 60 people worked in the factory, and around a dozen were trapped in the rubble. Fire crews used specialist search-and-rescue equipment, including sniffer dogs, carbon dioxide detectors (which detect the respired carbon dioxide of trapped persons), thermal-imaging equipment, and fibre-optic cameras to search for people trapped in the collapsed building. Some trapped workers were able to make themselves heard by shouting, or by using their mobile phones. Fire and Ambulance crews pulled seven people alive from the rubble on May 11. The search through the factory's ruins continued for the following three days.

Up to 300 firefighters and Paramedics were present at the scene and were supported by, the crew of a Sea King rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield, North Yorkshire, and a sniffer dog team from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. The volunteer group International Rescue Corps, who specialise in travelling to the site of earthquakes and helping locate survivors, sent eleven of its Scottish members to the scene.

The injured were taken for treatment to five hospitals in Glasgow; the most patients were taken to Stobhill Hospital, Western Infirmary and Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and the remaining were treated at Southern General and Victoria Infirmary. Seven people were declared dead at the scene, and two died in Western Infirmary. One firefighter was taken to hospital after being overcome by fumes, and several were stricken by heat exhaustion while labouring in the hot and humid conditions.

Strathclyde Police named the deceased as Annette Doyle (32), Peter Ferguson (52), Thomas McAulay (41), Tracy McErlane (27), Ann Trench (34), company directors Stewart McColl (60) and Margaret Brownlie (49), Kenneth Ronald Murray, (45), and Timothy Smith (31). With the recovery of Mr. Smith's body from the site on May 14, Strathclyde Fire Brigade announced that they believed no hope of recovering live victims remained.