Leading Fireman William Carnegie died after falling from a roof at a fire in Dundee on Thursday June the 14th 1962.
Crowd sees fireman crash from roof
Was due to go on holiday today
A
crowd of onlookers at a fire in an old tenement at 58 Mains Road, Dundee, late
yesterday afternoon stood horror-struck as a fireman crashed 30 feet from the
roof.
The fire-fighter, Leading Fireman William Carnegie (44), is in Dundee Royal
Infirmary with broken wrists and severe head injuries. Last night his condition
was said to be critical.
Leading Fireman Carnegie, based at the Northern Fire Station, lives at 2
Dryburgh Gardens. He, his wife and 17 year-old son were to have gone off on a
Norfolk Broads sailing holiday today.
The fire, a small one, was in the roof of a dormer attic window in the
two-storey tenement building. The fire brigade was called shortly before five
o’clock.
Frame gave way
Leading Fireman Carnegie was one of the men
who forced their way into the unoccupied attic home of Mrs Mary Coupland. She is
at present in hospital.
He was climbing out of the dormer window to investigate the damage to the slated
roof when the window frame apparently gave way.
Mr Carnegie fell back, tried to save himself on the guttering, but landed face
down on the pavement. Wreckage from the window clattered around him as
colleagues dashed to his assistance.
An emergency call for an ambulance was flashed over a fire engine radio.
Helmet came off
The fall was seen by workmen from Bowbridge
Works (Jute Industries, Ltd.) and women and children.
Sixty year old Robert Cunningham, 18 Craighill Place, Dundee, is a porter at the
works, which is across the street from the scene of the accident.
“The fireman took out part of the attic window, and then went out of the window.
He stood up to take hold of the top, but the metal gave way.
“His helmet came off as he fell. He didn’t even have time to shout,” said Mr
Cunningham.
Eighteen year old David Thom, 15 Downie Park, and Dorothy Allan (16), 44 Symers
Street, had been making a delivery to the D.P.M. dairy nearby.
Climbed out
David described the scene — “Smoke was coming
out of the roof and the fireman removed part of the window and climbed out onto
the slates. He grabbed the metal supports of the window to pull himself up, but
they came away in his hands.
“As he toppled backwards be tried to grab hold of the gutter but couldn’t, and
he just tumbled down to the pavement. His helmet came off as he fell.”
People living near the scene of the fire had smelt smoke for host of the
afternoon but they bad dismissed it as a chimney fire. It is thought a spark had
set old wood in the roof smouldering.
The fire itself was so small that the firemen put it out using a hosereel. The
roof around the window was badly damaged.
Wife told
The news of the accident was broken to
Leading Fireman Carnegie’s wife shortly after she’d finished work in the
personnel section of James Keiller & Son, Ltd.
Their 17-year-old son is a pupil at Harris Academy.
Last night Mrs Carnegie was at the home of Divisional Officer L Wilkie,
third-in-command of the Angus Area Fire Brigade. Firemaster John Jackson was out
of town, and Deputy Firemaster A. Jones on leave.
Amazing escape
Mrs Carnegie was being comforted by her
brother-in-law, Fireman Harry Anderson. Two months ago he and a colleague had an
amazing escape in the jute warehouse fire which killed Divisional Officer John
Buist.
Fireman Anderson was trapped by falling bales, and had to be pulled to safety
through a hole battered in a corrugated iron wall.
(The Dundee Courier and Advertiser, Friday, June 15, 1962. Page 6.)