Training to save lives

An empty sheltered housing complex in Glamis Road, Dundee is providing Tayside Fire and Rescue with the chance to train for an emergency the firefighters hope will never happen again – a major fire in a care home.

The oldest part of Margaret Blackwood Housing Association’s Blackwood Court opened in 1976. The development was the first of its kind in Scotland, offering housing and support services designed around the needs of disabled people, enabling them to live independent lives with dignity, privacy, and their families and belongings around them.

Thirty years on, the Association’s housing designs have evolved out of all recognition, leaving the oldest part of Blackwood Court outdated, inflexible, space-constrained and rather institutional.

At the end of last year, the tenants moved from the old block at Blackwood Court to brand new independent housing at Charleston. The building will soon be demolished to make way for new accessible housing but, in the meantime, it has taken on a new role.

Tayside Fire and Rescue are holding a series of training exercises in the building, in total darkness at dead of night. With life-size dummies placed in some of the flats and in places like the tenants’ lounge and the kitchen, fire officers in full respirator kit are conducting search and evacuation operations under very realistic conditions.

Crew Commander Stuart MacDonald told us; “We really appreciate the help of Margaret Blackwood Housing Association and of the tenants still living in Blackwood Court’s more recent housing.

“Everyone remembers the tragic fire in a Glasgow care home five years ago in which 14 people lost their lives. Being able to use Blackwood Court to train in a genuine sheltered housing complex is invaluable.