Alison Hume inquiry: Hero of Stockline blast who was forced to say sorry to Alison’s parents
He was just three months into a temporary job as Strathclyde’s firemaster when he was confronted with Scotland’s worst industrial disaster since Piper Alpha, with nine lives lost.
He received a Queen’s Fire Service Medal for his leadership over the Stockline Plastics explosion.
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Hide AdMore than 300 firefighters, medics and police joined a 72-hour search for survivors, with Mr Sweeney widely praised for his handling of the operation.
During a round-the-clock rescue mission which lasted four days, Mr Sweeney was at the forefront of operations, issuing regular updates to the media as the death toll mounted.
Mr Sweeney, an Irishman who hails from Ghortahork, in County Donegal, joined Strathclyde Fire Brigade as a recruit in 1980.
He officially secured the top position at Strathclyde, which commands a salary of £150,000, in October 2004 and was awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal in December 2005.
However, later that year he was criticised after admitting he had taken his nine-year-old son to work in the wake of the Glasgow airport terror attack.
The fire service claimed he was left with no choice because he could not get a babysitter at short notice.
In a report last year after the fatal accident into the fire he described the tragedy as “one of the most difficult” in the history of the Strathclyde service.
He faced difficult questions in the aftermath of the death of Alison Hume and Sheriff Derek Leslie’s judgment following the fatal accident inquiry, which ruled that her death might have been avoided if certain “reasonable precautions” had been taken.
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Hide AdSheriff Leslie concluded that the rescue attempt was delayed by senior fire officers who showed “rigid compliance” with official health and safety procedures.
Mr Sweeney, who was eventually forced to apologise to Ms Hume’s family, had earlier complained that health and safety laws were preventing firefighters from saving lives.
He said at the time: “What you have is the application of 20:20 hindsight. That doesn’t serve anyone well.
“It doesn’t serve the public well and it doesn’t serve to create the environment within which firefighters feel free to do their job and that can’t be safe for the whole of the UK.”
Mr Sweeney is already embroiled in a new row after retiring last July, only to be reappointed to the same post a month later, despite receiving a £500,000 lump sum pension.
The Accounts Commission has instigated a probe into the pay-off, which triggered anger in the face of other cutbacks within the fire service.