Nostalgia: Trailblazing to the rescue

How the city's fire service has evolved since the days of arriving on horseback.

OVER the years, the fire service has faced many challenges, but one that had them stumped this week was when an inquisitive hound got trapped in a hole.

Barred from digging up the protected area at Davidson's Mains Park, crews from Newcraighall used a tiny camera mounted on a long flexible cable to try and find Buster

Although they ultimately failed to trace the six-year-old lakeland cross terrier, not all was lost because, eventually, to the delight of his owner, Dougie Caddow, he emerged of his own volition.

Fire crew moved into a station on McDonald Road in 1965, replacing a base at Junction Place, the former headquarters of the Leith Fire Brigade.

A year earlier, equipment of the highest order was needed, however, when the Imperial Hotel in Leith Street caught fire in July. Firefighters used motorised appliances with tall ladders attached to tackle the blaze.

Ladders were also vital to the search and rescue effort following the Guthrie Street gas explosion, which killed two people and destroyed tenements in Edinburgh's Old Town in October 1989.

Fire brigade ladders in excess of 150 feet are employed by UK brigades and a 105ft ladder developed in the 1930s was still being used in the Lothians in the post Second World War period.

A development of the 1960s was the hydraulic platform, known colloquially as the Simon Snorkel – a hydraulically-powered arm with a cage on the top end that holds four firefighters.

It can be extended to 90ft in height and our picture shows it being used in a fire rescue on Castle Terrace in 1974.

Hoses of course are also a vital piece of equipment and here we see firemen using one to wash spilt petrol off the road following a car crash in Edinburgh in 1964.

Mobile hoses and hydrants were also a feature of the early fire brigade and officers from Lauriston Fire Station on St Andrew Square took time to pose in the 1930s with an early piece of equipment.

Things, of course, don't always go well for the fire service and our picture shows an appliance stuck in snow in 1979.

A year later, police were called when an engine crashed into the front of a shop in Deanhaugh Road.

But, fortunately, these incidents are few and far between and the fire brigade can usually be relied upon to attend every emergency – as Claire Coutts of Dunbar well knows.

When her newborn kitten disappeared into a drain pipe earlier this week, it was Buster's rescuers who came calling.

In no time at all, they had reunited the 26-year-old with her beloved pet, this time using the most technical pieces of equipment – a Hoover.