Reporter with the Evening Times who covered Kilbirnie Street disaster

Born: August 23, 1943;

Died: September 19, 2017

ALEX Wattie, who has died aged 74, was a journalist, broadcaster and former Evening Times reporter known for his coverage of the disastrous fire at the Sher Brothers’ warehouse in Kilbirnie Street in Glasgow on August 25, 1972 in which seven firefighters died. He was also known for his business reporting - he covered the demise of heavy industry in Scotland including the closure of Ravenscraig, the miners' strike and the work-in at Upper Clyde Shipyards.

Fires were commonplace in Glasgow at the time of the Kilbirnie Street disaster - in fact, Glasgow had become known as “tinderbox city” and it was thought that the Sher Brothers blaze, on the south side of the city, was "just another one".

Alex Wattie's shift in the Evening Times newsroom had been almost over when the urgent messages began to crackle over the police and fire radios that the four-storey House of Sher warehouse was well alight. It was a spectacular blaze and it was going to destroy a warehouse, but all the staff had been evacuated and there appeared to be no danger to life.

Suddenly, however, flames began licking along the roof of the building and in less than a minute it collapsed and the building imploded. Mr Wattie had thought the story would make a picture and a few paragraphs in the paper that night, but five minutes later everything changed. Firemen were missing. Men had been issued with breathing apparatus but had not returned within the allotted time, and time had run out.

Seven firemen died in the inferno and, at a commemoration service 40 years later, Mr Wattie recalled: “The entire sequence, from me sitting in the newsroom to the end, would be between 45 minutes and an hour. That was all. It happened so very, very quickly. I did not know until afterwards, but I had seen seven men die when the building collapsed. I think that is why the

incident has remained so vividly with me over 40 years. It isn't often that reporters witness something on this scale.”

Mr Wattie said had seen a Russian Mig-29 jet crash at the Paris Air Show, in 1989, but that memory had not remained with him as much as that fatal fire in Kilbirnie Street.

Alex Wattie was a Fifer who was born in Dunfermline and brought up in Burntisland where he stayed until he was 17. His parents were Barbara Doig and Alexander Hall Wattie, who was a sergeant in the army - after the the Second World War, he became chief railway controller for the east coast of Scotland. The couple married in 1942 during a spell of leave from the army and Alex never met his father until four years later when he was demobbed. His father was part of the team that organised the logistics for the withdrawal of troops when the war finished. Sergeant Wattie did not leave Egypt until all the troops were home from the Middle East and Africa. His last military task was to book himself on the last troop ship home.

Alex Wattie remained an only child and was educated at Burntisland primary school and Kirkcaldy High School. Like most journalists in that era, he did not go to university. He worked his way up the old-fashioned way, starting out on local newspaper, the Fife Free Press, and learned his craft from the bottom up.

On leaving school, he had worked for the Ministry of Defence initially for about three years in the armaments department at Gosport in Hampshire, but he damaged his hearing and left on medical grounds. He then moved back home to Scotland and took up journalism which had been his first love since he had won an essay writing competition for The Scotsman where he worked as a copy boy on job experience. This confirmed his love of writing and set him on the path to a successful career in journalism.

He worked for the Evening Times, the Scottish Daily Express, the Press Association and BBC Radio Scotland. He later specialised as an industrial correspondent for The Scotsman and, in a second stint at the BBC, as Radio Scotland business correspondent. Former colleagues said he would be remembered for his meticulous accuracy and the seriousness with which he approached the job.

Mr Wattie had close contact with leading trade unionists including Jimmy Reid. He moved to BBC Radio Scotland as business affairs correspondent and appeared regularly on television and radio. In 1990 he won the IPR award for best Scottish radio business journalist and in 1991 the award for best radio journalist. His daughter, Helen, said: “Whilst not a limelight man, he was secretly quite pleased!”

In retirement, he loved hill walking and sailing. He also loved sailing and had a yacht which he and his wife Joan sailed up the west coast of Scotland at every opportunity.

He was also a volunteer tour guide at the Fairfield Shipyard Museum in Govan which took him back to his love of the shipyards. He enjoyed this immensely as he did travelling and spending as much time with his grandchildren as he could. He was an avid reader and devoured books, especially biographies of world leaders and had a special interest in naval history.

Alex Wattie leaves a son, Andrew, daughter Helen, and three grandchildren. His wife Joan, whom he married at St Columbus Parish Church in Burntisland in 1973, died three years ago.

BILL HEANEY