THE owner of a fishing lodge on Lewis was in hospital on Wednesday night after a freak accident in which his vacuum cleaner accidentally sucked up a bag of cyanide powder.

The deadly poison then shot through the cleaner and came out the other end in a cloud of dust which showered businessman Dickon Green.

Road block at Cameron Terrace

As he was being rushed to hospital by a neighbour, the emergency services on the Isle of Lewis were called out to stop them getting to hospital and coming into contact with patients and staff.

It was at Uig Lodge in Timsgarry, on the west of the Isle of Lewis, that Mr Green was vacuum-packing a tin of the deadly powder ready for it to be transported for safe disposal at a mainland poisons depository.

He’d found it in the lodge where it was thought to have been for many years since previous owners used it for exterminating rats and he had failed to get a local agency to take responsibility for its safe disposal.

A local man explained: “Dickon was using a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out of the plastic bag into which he had put the tin of cyanide. The lid of the tin suddenly collapsed and the cyanide was immediately sucked into the vacuum cleaner.
“The powder then blew out the other end of the cleaner and the air was full of cyanide dust. Dickon realised he had breathed it in and went to get help.”

Firstly, trying to get help at the local GP’s surgery in Miavaig after 5pm, he found it shut. A 24-year-old man living close to the surgery offered to take him to hospital after being told that it would take some time for an ambulance to get to the scene.

The source said: “They headed off and were met by the ambulance at the Great Bernera road-end. They continued in the ambulance but it was then stopped by police near Achmore, eight miles from Stornoway. The cops had been ordered to stop it getting to the hospital to stop possible contamination of the staff and patients.”

A roadside decontamination unit was set up. However, the main decontamination involved the men being ordered to take their clothes off and being hosed down by firefighters. Part of the main route from Stornoway to the west side of the island, between Cameron Terrace and Achmore, was closed for a time.

Tent set up outside A&E

Mr Green and his companion were then taken to Western Isles Hospital where a tent was also set up outside the accident and emergency department. The two paramedics tending them were then also washed down. They were not detained in hospital.

Uig Lodge was said by locals to have been closed down by the emergency services until further notice. There was no word on the condition of Dickon Green but the 24-year-old was later released.