Farmworker rescues cattle from fire at Abernethy farm

May 7 2010 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A BRAVE farmworker freed 20 cattle from a blazing farm shed in a dramatic rescue near Abernethy on May 3.

He managed to remove the livestock and four tractors from the building at Jamesfield Farm before firefighters arrived at the scene, and in doing so he received a minor burn to his hand and suffered slight smoke inhalation.

An ambulance was called as a precautionary measure and the man was checked over at the scene by paramedics where he received oxygen therapy, although he did not require hospital treatment.

Operators received the first of several calls to report the blaze shortly after 8pm.

Tayside Fire and Rescue’s Rab Middlemass described how the first firefighters on the scene, from Perth and Dundee’s Macalpine Road station, faced a hazardous operation.

“On arrival they were faced with a well established and rapidly-developing fire which involved a 1000-litre tank of diesel, oxygen and propane cylinders as well as 20 tonnes of straw bales,” he told the PA.

“Limited water supplies in the area meant that water had to be drawn from the River Earn some 300m away and pumped to the incident across an open field.”

Appliances also attended from Auchterarder, Crieff and Newburgh, along with a command support unit from Dundee.

It appears there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the blaze.