POLICE divers yesterday recovered the body of missing teenager John McKay from the Preston Hill Quarry in Inverkeithing. The emergency services had been at the quarry since around 10pm on Thursday when other teens who were at the quarry phoned 999.
McKay is thought to have jumped into the quarry pool from high up. When it became obvious something had happened two of his friends risked their own lives to jump in after him.
They were unable to save him, but managed to get to safety.
It is the second death at the quarry in the space of a year. Last August 18-year-old Cameron Lancaster died at the same spot, jumping into the water as part of the ice-bucket challenge.
The quarry is popular with local teens for swimming during the summer.
Although circumstances of what happened on Thursday night are still unclear, it has been reported locally that a group of teens had organised to meet at the quarry through social media. After reports of police and ambulances heading to the quarry started to filter through to parents in the town, many rushed to the quarry to try and find their own children.
Locals reacted with anger that two lives had been lost in the space of ten months. A petition calling on the council to drain and fill in the quarry had been signed by over 1,500 people within 24 hours. Many took to a Facebook group to demand action.
However, The National understands that the quarry is owned by Letham Bay Development Company, and Fife Council are unable to take any action unless they enforce the new Community Empowerment Act.
Alice McGarry, councillor for Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay and Aberdour, told local press that McKay’s death was tragic and added: “The only saving grace is the other kids got out and it wasn’t a multiple tragedy as it could have been.”
She continued: “Parents didn’t know where their kids were and they were running around the quarry looking for them.
“The response from the emergency services was incredible. I have never seen so many fire engines, ambulances and police cars in my life, but ultimately it was too late.”
The councillor agreed that urgent action needed to be taken: “Two deaths in less than a year is something you can’t dismiss. The quarry is treacherous.”
There have been three other deaths at the quarry in the last 10 years.
Robin Benn, from Burntisland who signed the petition wrote: “Too many young lives have been lost for ever, and others blighted, in this cold and sinister place – a bleak relic of our industrial past, but a present danger for many young people.”
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