Angus school pupils looked on in disbelief as their head teacher was rescued by firefighters from the top of a crane.
Forfar Academy principal Melvyn Lynch had to be saved from a height of around 25 metres but the lunchtime drama was actually a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service training exercise.
Dundee firefighters used one of Robertson Construction Tayside’s cranes for the exercise, which took place on the site of the new £38 million Forfar Community Campus.
The project’s construction phase officially began in June with the campus to incorporate a new state-of-the-art school and leisure features.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mCy6oKDgjEM%3Frel%3D0
Mr Lynch, who took over as rector at the school in 2004, described being rescued by White Watch firefighters from the Kingsway East station as “an exhilarating experience”.
Robertson Construction Tayside managing director Kevin Dickson said: “We were more than happy to hand over our crane to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for their exercise and hope that Mr Lynch has recovered from his ordeal.
“Forfar Community Campus is a hugely important project for the area and we have already made significant progress in the construction phase with much of the structure now in place.”
Once Mr Lynch was safely returned to his office, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service held a second exercise using the crane with one of their firefighters being rescued.
Group manager for Scottish Fire and Rescue, Craig Thomson, said: “Today is an excellent opportunity for our crew to carry out well-rehearsed techniques in a real life environment.
“We have a training simulator at Dundee’s Kingsway but there is no substitute for the real thing and we are grateful to Robertson Construction for allowing us to use their site for training purposes.”
The campus is being developed by Angus Council in partnership with the Hub East Central Scotland.
The new building will replace the half-century old academy and create new leisure features, including a six-lane swimming pool in place of the town’s 105-year-old Vennel baths, and is scheduled to welcome pupils and the wider community in February 2017.