By Liz Fowler

A MONTROSE woman has described her daughter who was badly injured in a Mearns hotel explosion as one of the luckiest barmaids in Britain.

Danielle Ormond (26) was one of three people seriously injured in the suspected gas blast at the Drumtochty Arms Hotel.

She was pulled to safety from the rubble by horrified bystanders who heard her screaming. She suffered cracked ribs, a punctured lung, fractured sternum and other cuts and bruises and is recovering in hospital in Aberdeen.

As demolition of what was left of the hotel began yesterday, her mother Linda (51) told how she had previously escaped after three car accidents, two terrorist attacks and two IRA bombs.

“No matter what gets thrown at Danielle she always bounces back,” said Linda.

“But I’m beginning to worry that she might have used up her nine lives by now,” she added.

Danielle had been working at the hotel for just three weeks and had gone into the cellar to change a beer barrelmoments before the explosion.

But it is not the first time she has been involved in a blast.

When she was eight and on a trip to London with the Brownies an IRA bomb exploded nearby.

Two years later history repeated itself on another Brownies trip to the capital. Both times she walked away unscathed.

She was also on a train close to where terrorists blew up a train in Barcelona in the late 1990s.

And she had just left Glasgow Airport before terrorists drove a car into it in 2007.

She has also survived three car accidents. One when she was 18 and another two when she was 21. She suffered a broken rib in one.

“Wherever Danielle is there seems to be a calamity,” said Linda.

“Excitement seems to follow her around.

“She’s driven her car into a ditch and twice collided with cars that pulled out in front of her.

“When she was younger she fell and her teeth went through her lip. Her hospital file must be like a real long novel.”

Along with Danielle’s father Ian Ormond and her boyfriend Kristopher Paul, Linda has been making daily visits to her daughter’s bedside.

“She is black and blue the entire length of her body,” said Mr Ormond.

“She has been in terrible pain and they’ve been giving her morphine.”

He told how he and his wife had been watching television together when news came through of the explosion, which happened around 5.30pm on Wednesday.

He said, “We both jumped in the air because we knew Danielle was working.

“But we couldn’t get through to anybody on the phone to find out what had happened and it was about 10pm before we heard she was in hospital.

“It was the next day before we were allowed to go up and see her.”

Pipe-fitter James Guthrie (22) who lives in Auchenblae and had been enjoying an after work pint was also freed from the rubble.

He suffered facial injuries including a broken jaw.

A man in his 50s, kitchen-fitter Neil Coffield from Banffshire, was also hurt.

He is believed to have suffered serious burns that needed skin graft treatment.

The hotel was just days away from its official opening when the disaster happened.

Built in 1760, the listed building had undergone nearly 12 months of refurbishment costing multi- millionaire owner, Charlie Anderson, who also owns nearby Drumtochty Castle, around £400,000.

Only the undamaged original part of the old building is expected to be left standing.

A dangerous buildings notice was served yesterday by Aberdeenshire Council after the rest of what was left standing of the hotel was declared dangerously unstable.

Undertaken by specialist contractor Les Taylor, the demolition is expected to take a week to complete, before health and safety officers go in to conduct their investigation.

The local authority’s building standards manager Jon McIntosh said every effort would be made not to damage the adjoining shop of William Lindsay Family Butcher.