IN the 70 years that he has been going along to Rugby Park to support his local team Kilmarnock, Peter Orr has experienced a wide range of emotions.
He has celebrated as the Ayrshire club have won cups, promotions and titles and despaired as they have suffered heavy defeats and relegations in the decades since attending his first match way back in 1953.
Yet, the pensioner, who is confined to a wheelchair, had never before felt the alarm and concern that he did when the disabled section he was sitting in was bombarded by smoke bombs thrown by opposition supporters at a cinch Championship match last season.
The 77-year-old, the chairman of the Kilmarnock Disabled Supporters Association, believes that it was “a miracle” that he and his fellow fans escaped serious injury or worse during the disturbing incident.
Orr has issued an impassioned appeal to fans of all clubs across Scotland to stop using pyrotechnics at games – an illegal practice which is on the rise across the United Kingdom – and called for anyone caught doing so to be issued with lengthy banning orders.
“Because the new disabled platform for Kilmarnock supporters was getting built in the Moffat Stand that day last season, we went and sat in the disabled section in the Chadwick Stand where the away fans were,” he said.
“Not long after the game in question kicked off, fans of the team we were playing started throwing lit smoke bombs down from behind us. One actually came into the wheelchair area. More flares landed just in front of it. There were about four or five of them in total which came down.
“Inhaling the smoke itself was quite bad. It was terrible in fact. Some of our wheelchair members get very upset if there is anything out of the ordinary happening and they were certainly very upset that afternoon.
“Quite a high percentage of our disabled wheelchair supporters live in sheltered homes or require full-time care. Understandably, they were extremely anxious about it. Especially when the smoke started coming into our section.
“But, as I say, one of the smoke bombs actually came into the dugout, which is what we call the sheltered area for wheelchair users. It was quite disturbing actually. It was a miracle nobody was hurt. Fortunately, the smoke bomb that landed in the disabled section just missed all of our members.”
Orr added: “But the wind blew the smoke from the two smoke bombs that landed just in front of us back into the shelter. I started shouting: ‘Cover your face! Cover your face! Try not to inhale the smoke!’. We have some members who are bothered by chest conditions and you don’t know how toxic the smoke from smoke bombs is.
“The smoke was terrible. We were in an enclosed area and there were about 10 wheelchairs in there at the time. Some of our members are quite physically disabled. If they hadn’t had carers there to assist them they wouldn’t have been able to cover their faces and something terrible could have happened.
“We have a young lassie who comes to games who requires oxygen to breathe. Can you imagine what would have happened if the smoke bomb had landed on her? It doesn’t bear thinking about. That would have been really, really serious.
“We were also lucky it wasn’t a wooden platform or there would have been a danger a fire could have been started. The disabled section had just been rebuilt because Rangers fans had jumped on it and caved it in at a match. The base and the surrounds are all made of metal and were non-flammable which was fortunate. But our fans were still really upset about it.
“These things are designed to be used when there is nobody else near the person using them. But if they are landing in an enclosed area and you are in a wheelchair then you don’t have any time to get out. Fortunately, the stewards in the area were quite quick to come over and take them away. It could have been a lot worse.”
Orr and his fellow disabled supporters are now back watching Kilmarnock from the comfort of the new platform the Rugby Park club has provided for them in the Moffat Stand and he has enjoyed seeing Derek McInnes’s side play in the cinch Premiership once again this season in a safe environment.
He acknowledges the difficulties which both the police and football clubs have in stopping fans from smuggling bangers, flares, smoke bombs, strobes, rockets and flashbangs in to stadiums and setting them off during matches when thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of people are filing through the turnstiles.
But it is becoming an increasingly prevalent problem; another disabled Kilmarnock fan was struck on the head by a smoke bomb in the final game of the season against Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park in April.
Orr stressed that he would like to see offenders apprehended and punished by the authorities - and a strong message sent out that pyrotechnics will not be tolerated in the Scottish game.
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“I spoke to the Kilmarnock general manager about it after the match and asked him how fans are managing to get smoke bombs into a ground and if they are not searched before games,” he said.
“But I know that if they want to get them in they will get them in. It is impossible to search everyone if you have a large crowd. I am not going to say that all of our fans are angels. It goes on at most games now.
“But I would appeal to anyone who is thinking of taking a pyrotechnic into a football ground and setting it off not to do so. I think anyone who does so should be automatically removed from the stadium and banned from going to matches. It is the only way we are going to stop it.
“We were lucky that day we were bombarded with smoke bombs – somebody in the disabled section could have suffered a bad burn or far worse. We were very fortunate they didn’t hit any of us and we escaped unscathed.”
