A regional daily tracked down a disaster survivor 200 miles off patch as it marked the tragedy’s 30th anniversary.

Th Edinburgh Evening News has commemorated the 1989 Guthrie Street Disaster, a gas blast which left two dead and others tapped in the rubble.

After consulting their archives, EEN staff launched an appeal online for readers to share their memories of that day – and reporter Elsa Maishman was even able to track down Martin Baptie, a survivor of the blast, to his home in Clitheroe, Lancashire.

Martin’s story of how he survived the explosion provided a front page for the EEN on Friday.

Iain Pope, news editor at the News, told HTFP the response to the appeal showed the tragedy was “clearly imprinted on the city’s consciousness”.

He said: “Martin was a 19 year-old student in 1989 and fell the whole length of the building and was rescued from the rubble, still on his mattress. I don’t think Martin has spoken publicly in nearly 30 years and his testament was astonishing.

“The other vignettes of readers’ memories of that day, which perhaps will never be reported in anything other than these ‘look backs’ were equally interesting.

“In the end we printed two spreads in the Evening News. We could have printed way more. We are also carrying extended versions of the story online – cut up and packaged into different vignettes.”

Iain went on to explain the importance of using archives as an editorial tool.

He said: “As part of our editorial forward planning on the EEN in print and online we regularly go through our own files, and the files of other media if I am honest, looking for 50, 40,30, 25, 10 and five-year anniversaries.

“It may sound simple, and it is pretty ‘old skool’ but it is an important task for the younger reporters in particular not only to see the extent of the title’s heritage and the work of their predecessors, but also to sniff out potential leads. The amount of stories we get from our own paper never ceases to amaze.”

Iain added: “The other vignettes of readers’ memories of that day, which perhaps will never be reported in anything other than these ‘look backs’ were equally interesting.

“In the end we printed two spreads in the Evening News. We could have printed way more. We are also carrying extended versions of the story online – cut up and packaged into different vignettes.

“On one level it is simple stuff, making our own archives work properly for us, but it has clearly resonated with the readers.”