A heroic Ayr firefighter has told of the 'miracle' rescue of a family, a year on from a devastating house explosion.
Brave mercy crews pulled two parents and one of their children from the rubble after their Kincaidston home which was destroyed in a gas explosion.
Amber Watch crew from Ayr Fire Station were the first to arrive to the disaster zone at Gorse Park on Monday, October 18.
Commander Vicky Hodge has recounted the harrowing scene that her crew were met with – as they raced to save the lives of three of the four blast victims.
Vicky has told of an urgent rescue bid which saw a Marion Ferguson, then aged 43; her husband William Ferguson, then aged 47; and their son then aged 16 pulled from the rubble.
Their other son, then aged 11, was already hauled from the disaster zone by hero neighbour Alex Craig.
Vicky told Ayrshire Live: “Everyone was really quick to react – to get them out really quickly. It took about 20 or 30 minutes.
“It is a miracle that they survived. That is all that mattered to us, every one of us joins the service to save lives.
“To have survivors from an incident like that was unexpected – you always hope for the best but you fear the worse.
“Regardless of that, we react quickly to try and save saveable lives.
“We were just so happy to know they survived and we hope they are on the road to recovery.”
The successful rescue was carried out at a scene with zero visibility due to thick dust and debris everywhere.
Vicky added: “We were the first to arrive at the scene.
“There was absolutely no visibility at all around the blast site, because it was an explosion there was just a huge dust cloud. There was dust and debris everywhere.
“It was chaotic. We had several members of the public who were all shouting at us telling us there was ‘people missing’ and that there ‘used to be a building there’.
“We had four seats of fire to deal with, there was alarms going off all over the place. A lot of people in the distance shouting it was a lot to deal with.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been to a few explosions but nothing to that degree before.”
Vicky and crew commander Ross Campbell were welcomed back by grateful Kincaidston residents to mark the anniversary of the explosion at the community centre over the weekend.
Vicky says it was great to return a year on to see that residents had bounced back.
She added: “We were just doing our job, but right from the minute of the disaster you saw how they reacted with neighbours running to help us and support us.
“The thing that has resonated with us was how the community dealt with what happened.
“It is something we’ll never forget. We can’t thank them enough for showing their appreciation and inviting us down."
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