Assistant Divisional Officer Scott led the fire crew that rushed to Coronation Street in March 1979 when a lorry carrying wood crashed into the front of the Rovers, injuring several residents and apparently burying Tracy Langton under the debris.
On arrival at the scene of the disaster, Scott was given a briefing by Sgt Cummings of the police who had been one of the first on the scene. With the lorry driver dead, the fire crew concentrated their efforts on trying to locate Tracy with Scott directing one of his men, Jack Hollis, to try and get through the wood to the child. Several times Scott had to demand silence from the onlookers in order that Hollis could try and hear any cries from underneath and burrowing down as the top planks were cleared away, Hollis found Tracy’s doll. Scott tried to see if there was a way under the wood from inside the Rovers through the wrecked frontage but the pile was impenetrable and simply had to be taken away a plank at a time. When Hollis did get through Tracy was missing and she was later found in the possession of Sally Norton who had had to give up her own baby for adoption and who had suffered a breakdown as a result.