Were it not for her sense of humour, Linda Kinnon has been told, she would probably not have made it through the past three years.

As she lay trapped after an explosion, a rescue worker explained that he needed to cut her clothes off and had to know what she was wearing. “Apparently I was going ballistic when the fireman asked what I was wearing, and I told him it was none of his business,” she said yesterday. “Then he swore – and I told him there was abolutely no need for that language, no matter what the situation.”

Ms Kinnon, 55, was the last person to be pulled alive from the rubble of the Stockline plastics factory in Mary-hill, Glasgow, after a gas leak caused a huge explosion shortly before noon on May 11, 2004. For two hours she lay in the darkness, impaled by a piece of timber, with only the groans of her dying boss to keep her company.

It took 7½ hours for emergency workers to cut her free, and they feared that she might die. As well as a broken nose and bruises all over her body, she suffered a collapsed lung, a shattered leg and ankle, and her left buttock – where the timber went through her – was injured beyond recognition. Nine of her colleagues had died.

More than three years later, Ms Kinnon cannot walk without crutches. Her wounds are still dressed by a nurse who visits every other day, and she takes antidepressants.

However, when the operators of the factory pleaded guilty in court to health and safety charges yesterday she refused to celebrate.

ICL Tech Ltd and ICL Plastics – small companies whose two main shareholders are now in their seventies – face heavy fines when the case goes back to Glasgow High Court this month.

With the extraordinary perspective and good nature that has amazed those who have treated her, Ms Kinnon said yesterday: “I am not a vindictive person. I would just like to see a change in the law so that this sort of thing can never happen again. If the fine is too severe it would put ICL out of business and that would mean people losing jobs, and I don’t want that.”

She added: “I am trying to come to terms with what happened and I am trying hard not to be bitter and to get rid of the feelings of anger, but it is hard to do.”

Five men and four women, including a father of three and a new mother, died when the blast tore apart what had been a 19th-century mill; 40 people were seriously injured. The blast, which was heard miles away, left only one corner of the four-storey building standing, causing it to collapse, witnesses said, “like a pack of cards”. Thousands of tonnes of rubble crashed down on the workforce. Rescue teams searched for survivors for four days, using sniffer dogs, fibre-optic cameras and thermal-imaging equipment.

A corroded pipe had leaked liquid petroleum gas, which ignited.

In a joint statement yesterday, relatives of the dead called for a public inquiry. They said: “No court case or penalty imposed by the courts will bring our families back or provide an explanation as to why they died. It is now time for the concerns of the families to be taken into account and we continue to call for a wide-reaching public inquiry that provides us with answers as to why these health and safety breaches occurred.”

Marie Murray, who lost her husband of 25 years, Kenny, said: “I felt overwhelmed because someone has taken responsibility for what happened.”

Rosemary Doyle, who lost her daughter Annette, 34, said: “They wouldn’t be dead if the company had done what they were supposed to. I feel very angry and bitter.”

Ms Kinnon, the factory’s personnel officer, will never return to work and is unlikely to walk again without crutches. She has lost count of the skin grafts and operations she has had, and jokes that her plastic surgeon is so pleased with the reconstruction of her buttock that “he wants to put a little tag on it saying that he crafted it”.

She says that when she sees footage of the explosion, “I don’t know how I’m still here. I think my guardian angel must have been on overtime.”

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