Nurse tells of frantic bid to save lives at Rosepark home

A NURSE on duty on the night that fire swept through a care home killing 14 people broke down in tears as he described desperately trying to save the lives of residents.

Brian Norton, who was a part-time nurse at the Rosepark care home in Lanarkshire, described how an impenetrable barrier of “acrid black smoke” forced him to turn back as he battled to reach the top floor.

As he gave evidence at a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths, Mr Norton broke down in tears, leading to Sherriff Brian Lockhart calling a brief adjournment to proceedings.

Mr Norton explained how, after the fire alarm went off, he had searched a part of the home looking for the fire, assuming that nurse-in-charge Isobel Queen and care assistants Irene Richmond and Yvonne Carlyle would investigate the other parts of the building.

However, the inquiry heard nursing staff spent eight minutes attempting to silence a fire alarm and “milling about” before calling the fire brigade.

The Fatal Accident Inquiry into the deaths at Rosepark care home in Uddingston, in the early hours of January 31, 2004, saw CCTV footage showing staff repeatedly trying to switch off a fire alarm before alerting the emergency services.

After initial failed searches to find the source of the fire, Mr Norton described how Ms Queen had said “it must be a false alarm because there is nothing here”.

He then claimed that she asked “what shall we do?” to which he replied “what do you normally do?” – she answered “I would reset the alarm,” said Mr Norton.

He explained how Ms Queen then turned the on/off key on the fire panel, shutting of the alarm for a few seconds, before it “lit up again like a Christmas tree”.

Mr Norton then said that he decided he was “not going to stand there any longer looking at a box … I’m going to do something”.

He described how he rushed down a corridor towards the rooms of the elderly residents, many who were in their 80s and 90s and suffering from dementia, sight problems and poor mobility.

“There was smoke billowing from a cupboard from the corner of the ceiling, it was almost as though the tiles had blown in,” he said.

“I shouted there was a big fire and grabbed hold of Yvonne [Carlyle] and pulled her under the smoke to get to the other side.”

Mr Norton said he shouted to Ms Queen to call the fire brigade and ran downstairs and across to a stairwell on the far side of the home, hoping to be able to climb the stairs and create an escape route for the residents on the top floor.

“The biggest shock to me was seeing smoke at the other end of the building,” said Mr Norton. He said he smelt burning and the smoke was so thick he couldn’t see where he was going.

Paul Wade, acting for Strathclyde fire brigade, asked if it was his impression that there was little chance of anyone on the top floor surviving.

“Yes and it was horrible,” said Mr Norton.

He then said he returned downstairs and began to pull residents from their beds into wheelchairs, wrapping clothes around them knowing that it was snowing outside. “My first instinct was that if we couldn’t get residents out we would be trapped,” he said.

A few minutes later, he said, two firemen emerged from the smoke. “I have never been more relieved in my life,” he said.

The residents on the bottom floor of the home were rescued, despite firemen having to search for bolt cutters to open a locked gate, delaying access to the home.

The inquiry continues.