Relatives of some of the elderly people who died in a blaze which killed 14 nursing home residents in Lanarkshire gave evidence on Monday as an inquiry into the tragedy got under way.
A minute's silence was held at the start of the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the fire at the Rosepark Home in Uddingston, Lanarkshire. As well as the 14 deaths, four residents were injured when the blaze broke out in a cupboard at the home on January 31, 2004.
Care home owners Thomas, Anne and Alan Balmer are represented, along with Strathclyde Fire Brigade, Lanarkshire Health Board and the Care Commission. On Monday, at the Gospel Literature Outreach Centre in Motherwell, several family members of victims gave evidence in the first session.
They were all questioned by Crown counsel James Wolffe QC. One of them was Janette Bulloch, a retired clerical assistant, lost her 85-year-old mother Helen Crawford in the blaze. Asked why her mother was in the home, Mrs Bulloch said: "She had Alzheimer's and it was becoming increasingly difficult to cope with her."
Ms Bulloch said she visited her mother frequently. Asked whether her mother's bedroom door was generally kept open or closed, she replied: "Her preference would be to have it open." She said she had noticed fire drill instructions on the walls at the home but added that sometimes she noticed fire doors were open.
Robina Burns, 89, died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, two days after the fire. Her daughter, Agnes Crawford, 72, described one of the last conversations she had with her mother. She said: "She was very black with smoke when I saw her. She kept pulling her oxygen mask down."
Mrs Burns had been a resident at Rosepark since 2002. Mrs Crawford, a retired housewife, said: "She had gone to bed by eight or nine.
"She slept with the bedside lamp on. She was awakened by the sound of a bulb popping. When she did wake she could smell smoke. She said she opened the door and got a fright when she saw what was happening."
The inquiry heard that Mrs Crawford said in a police statement: "She saw flames rush along the corridor. She closed the door tight, made her way to the window, pulled a lever to open the window. She sat at a chair by the window and everything went quiet." She said her mother was unable to remember anything after that.
The inquiry, before Sheriff Principal Brian Lockhart, is expected to last between four and six months. An attempt to prosecute the Balmers over alleged safety breaches collapsed in 2007 after a judge dismissed the charges.
A fresh indictment was served last year but those charges were also dropped. The inquiry will later hear evidence on the causes of death, any precautions which could have been taken over the home's construction, its inspection and its fire safety system, and any defects that might have contributed to the fatal blaze.
The aim of the FAI is to allow relatives to learn the full circumstances of the tragedy, and to prevent a similar fire happening again. It will also try to establish whether any reasonable precautions could have been taken to avoid the deaths.
