BAYSWATER - 1869

On Oct. 1, 1869, an explosion killed seven people in a house in Bayswater. The owner of the house, at 69, Moscow Road - a Mr. Titheradge - was a confectioner who also sold fireworks, according to the 1870 edition of the Annual Register, published by Longmans.

The book said:

``At five minutes to three o'clock in the morning the constable who took this road as part of a very long beat happened to be passing near the house, when he heard a noise resembling fireworks, and was startled immediately afterwards by an explosion which blew the front of the shop out, shutters and all. He at once sprang his rattle, and used his best exertions to rouse the people in the place.

``But egress by the front was impossible almost immediately, as the house must have been in flames instantaneously in the front, and the explosion, to all appearances, went through the two windows over the shop. Of course all who slept in that apartment must have been killed at once. A second policeman came at the alarm of the rattle, and he ran for the engine, which came in fifteen minutes after the alarm.''

HARROW AND WEALDSTONE - 1952

At 8:19 a.m. on Oct. 8, 1952, disaster struck at the Harrow and Wealdstone rail station in northwest London.

An express train crashed into the rear of a local making a scheduled stop. Seconds later, a third train traveling in the opposite direction plowed into the wreckage.  In all, 122 people died.

Rescuers used acetylene torches to reach people entwined in the wreckage.

The Ministry of Transport concluded the express train passed a caution and two danger signals heading into the station.

"Some of the victims were on the platform as carriages full of commuters were hurled onto them," the BBC reported that day. "Others were killed on a footbridge over the track that was punctured by a pile of coaches."

BRAIDWOOD



 

Tooley Street Fire - 1861

By Vinny Del Giudice
Editor, London Fire Journal

On July 9, 1861, the steamship Arago arrived in New York from England with a newspaper correspondent’s report on a conflagration at Tooley Street, London.

The blaze, which broke out June 22 and burned for days, claimed the life of James Braidwood, superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment.

Braidwood, admired far and wide for his skill and bravery, pioneered the modern fire service.

The former fire master of Edinburgh shaped London’s disorganized and undisciplined insurance company-sponsored brigades into an effective force.

In his 28 years at the helm in London, Braidwood accomplished more in the field of firefighting and fire prevention than anyone before him - even kings and parliament.
 
Braidwood was a Scot.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1800, attended the Royal High School, joined his father's building firm as an apprentice, became a surveyor and gained "exceptional knowledge of the behavior of building materials and housing conditions in the Old Town of Edinburgh," according to Wikipedia.

Following the Great Fire of Edinburgh in 1824, Braidwood pressed for the formation of a trained fire service to replace the usual collection of mobs and bucket brigades.

In the early 19th C., people were leaving Edinburgh’s Old Town for the more comfortable surroundings of the New Town. [Gazetteer of Scotland]

The old buildings became slums and fire-traps.

The city had very limited fire services and, following a series of deadly fires, which culminated in the Great Fire of Edinburgh of 1824, Braidwood persuaded the authorities and insurance company brigades to work together.

He formed the world's first municipal fire brigade, organizing men and machines.

In organizing Edinburgh’s fire force:

Braidwood recruited to the service expert tradesmen - slaters, carpenters, masons and plumbers - who could apply their various fields of expertise to firefighting. [Wikipedia]

He also recruited experienced mariners for an occupation that required heavy manual work in hauling engines and trundling wheeled escape ladders up and down Edinburgh's steep streets, as well as nimble footwork when negotiating rooftops and moving through partially destroyed buildings.

 

His 1830 text "On the Construction of Fire Engines and Apparatus" preached such things as getting a hose line close to the seat of the fire to extinguish it rather than pouring on water from a distance.

The book was considered ground-breaking and led to Braidwood's appointment as superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment in 1833.

His new brigade was funded by London’s insurance companies and staffed by 80 full-time fire-fighters at 13 stations who wore a functional grey uniform -- designed by Braidwood -- with knee-high boots and black leather helmets.

His crews were nicknamed ``Jimmy Braiders."

Men who had served in the Royal Navy received preference in hiring for their discipline, strength and training.

Burning of Pariament - 1834

The new brigade faced a major challenge when the Houses of Parliament burned on Oct. 16, 1834.

The blaze started in a basement furnace and spread rapidly.

Seeing the fire was well-advanced, Braidwood directed his force to concentrate on saving Westminster Hall and checking the spread of the flame to other structures.

In that, they succeeded.

Even so, the fire was considered a national tragedy. 

In the aftermath of blaze, Braidwood pursued an aggressive effort to reduce the numbers through safer building construction.

In a letter to the Times of London newspaper, [fire.org.uk] Braidwood wrote:

The causes of the fire proceeding so rapidly in the work of destruction I believe to be as follows:

1 The total want of party walls.

2 The passages which intersected the building in every direction and acted as funnels to convey the fire.

3 The repeated alterations in the buildings which had been made with more regard to expedient then to security.

4 The immense quantity of timber used in the exterior.

5 The great depth and extent of the buildings.

6 A smart breeze of wind.

7 An indifferent supply of water which, though amply sufficient for any ordinary occasion, was inadequate for such an immense conflagration.

8 My own and the firemen's total ignorance of the localities of the place. In fires in private dwellings, warehouses, or manufactories, some idea may generally be formed on the division of the inside of the premises from observing the appearances of the outside, but in the present case that rule was useless.

 

Escape Ladders

The primary role of the London Fire Engine Establishment was the protection and salvage of property as it was funded by the insurance industry.

Life safety was of secondary concern.

In 1836, the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire was organized separate of Braidwood's brigade to place wheeled ladders throughout London.

The wooden "escapes" could reach as high as 60 feet.

The cumbersome but effective apparatus were operated by "conductors" who were employed by the society and underwent months of training.
 
(The use of wooden escape ladders continued into the 1970s and 1980s on motorized vehicles).

The firemen of London Fire Engine Establishment and the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire worked closely throughout the Braidwood era.

In 1854, for example, they conducted a number of rescues in a blaze at Raggett's hotel in central London while Braidwood directed the fire-fighting.

Tooley Street - Braidwood's Final Fire

Braidwood's Funeral Procession - 1861

Braidwood's final fire at Tooley Street broke out at Cotton's Wharf, a six-story warehouse storing hemp, jute, cotton and other commodities.

According to a sketch of Braidwood:

Although discovered in broad daylight, and before the flames had made any considerable headway, the want of a ready supply of water, and the fact that the iron doors in the division walls between the several warehouses had been left open, taken in connexion with the extremely combustible nature of the materials, soon rendered hopeless all chance of saving the buildings and property.

(Braidwood) appears to have at once foreseen that the fire would be one of no ordinary magnitude, and that the utmost that could be done would be to prevent its extending widely over adjoining property.

The floating fire-engines had been got to bear upon the flames, and the men in charge of the branch pipes were, after two hours' work, already suffering greatly from the intense heat, when their chief went to them to give them a word of encouragement.

Several minor explosions, as of casks of tallow or of oil, had been heard, but as it was understood that the saltpetre stored at the wharf was in buildings not yet alight, no alarm was then felt as to the walls falling in

At the moment, however, while Mr. Braidwood was discharging this his last act of kindness to his men, a loud report was heard, and the lofty wall behind him toppled and fell, burying him in the ruins.

It was a tremendous loss, with Queen Victoria sending her condolences.

Braidwood's funeral procession stretched for a mile and a half through London with thousands in attendance.

Church bells tolled and public houses remained open through the night.

On the 150th anniversary of the Tooley Street Fire, the London Fire Brigade published the following account on its website:

By 6 p.m., 14 fire engines, including a steam fire engine and the floating engine, were all at the fire. The fire spread quickly throughout the workhouses as the iron fire doors, that separated many of the storage rooms, had been left open.

It is believed that if they had been closed, as recommended by James Braidwood the Superintendent of the LFEE, the fire may have burnt out, avoiding disaster.

It has been suggested that the fire was so fierce because the firefighters couldn’t get a supply of water for nearly an hour.

This was made even more difficult as the Thames was at low tide.

Whilst the firefighters were tackling the blaze Braidwood noticed how tired they were getting and ordered that every firefighter receive a ‘nip’ of brandy.

While he was assisting one of his firefighters the front section of a warehouse collapsed on top of him, killing him instantly.

HELL IN HULL

During World War II, Hull was the most severely bombed British city apart from London, according to official estimates.

• 86,715 buildings damaged
• 95 percent of houses damaged or destroyed
• 152,000 residents made homeless

WINDSCALE - 1957

On Oct. 10, 1957, fire struck Pile 1 at the Windscale nuclear power station in West Cumbria. "There was no smoke and no flames and most local people were oblivious to what is generally seen as the world's first nuclear accident," the BBC said. It took several tries for nuclear station personnel  to suppress the flames. 

LORD ROMILLY - 1891

On May 24, 1891, London fireman George Byne was seriously injured in a rescue attempt at the home of a nobleman - Lord William Romilly, 2nd Baron Romilly. Romilly died as did his maid and cook. The butler and another servant escaped. The New York Times said Romilly "upset a paraffine lamp in the drawing room in his London residence. He was alone at the time and vainly attempted to extinguish the fire unassisted."

I WAS A FIREMAN

Gravett, Houghton and Rey

A tip of the helmet to Canadian firefighter Huw Jones for alerting us to the movie "I Was a Fireman" about the 1940-41 London blitz.

This realistic 1942 film - originally titled "Fires Were Started" - focuses on a day in the life of Fire Station 14-Y of the London Auxiliary Fire Service. The cast was composed of blitz firemen and firewomen, though none received credits.

The film was directed by Humphrey Jennings for the Crown Film Unit, a propaganda office in the Ministry of Information. After the war, Jennings was described as "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced."

He died in 1950 while scouting locations  for a documentary.

Here is a list of cast :

Chief Fire Officer Frank Jackson (Himself)

Commanding Officer George Gravett (Sub-Officer Dykes)

Leading Fireman Philip Wilson-Dickson (Section Officer Walters)

Leading Fireman Fred Griffiths (Johnny Daniels)

Leading Fireman Loris Rey ('Colonel' J. Rumbold)

Fireman Johnny Houghton (S.H. 'Jacko' Jackson)

Fireman T.P. Smith (B.A. Brown)

Fireman John Barker (Joe Vallance)

Fireman and later novelist William Sansom (Mike Barrett)

Assistant Group Officer Green (Mrs. Townsend)

Firewoman Betty Martin (Betty)

Firewoman Eileen White (Eileen)

GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY

News and Notes, June 2006

My uncle Edward Carrick was an art director and production designer in films from the 20s to the 60s, and during the Second World War he worked for the Crown Film Unit, the Ministry of Information's wartime documentary (ie propaganda) film arm. He was art director on Target for Tonight (1941) about the RAF's bombing missions; Close Quarters (1943) for which he filmed on a working submarine as well as built a full-size model of it; Western Approaches (1944) about the Merchant Navy; and Fires Were Started (1943) Humphrey Jennings' masterpiece of dramatised documentary (also known as I Was A Fireman).

Fires Were Started is a record of a day and night in the Fire Service during the Blitz. It is set in Trinidad Street and Alderman's Wharf in Limehouse — then a working East End community of wharves and warehouses, not the miles of characterless 1980s flats it is today. Carrick recounted working all day during the Blitz, and going out with a cameraman at night to film anything that could be useful. The East End was an important target for the Luftwaffe, and one night he chanced to see the old Tate and Lyle factory at Silvertown explode into flames. They had an old hand-crank camera with them, and the cameraman got so excited that he inadvertently sped up the winding. The Tate and Lyle explosion is the same big conflagration seen in Fires Were Started. The damage at Silvertown that night was extensive, destroying other factories and wharves as well, which were still on fire the next morning.

Carrick needed to stage a fire at night for the action of the film, but it had to be carefully controlled — the authorities were none too thrilled about the film unit starting another fire when there already so many! A lot of effort went into the filming of the burning building (an already-bombed warehouse). At one point in the middle of it all, Carrick flicked off his protective leather jacket what he thought was ash, only to realise it was molten lead dripping onto him from the roof. He survived, the film was a dramatic and moving success, and his daughter-in-law wore the jacket into the 1960s.

BLITZ DEATHS

The German raids of World War Two claimed the lives of 327 firefighters serving in the London region - members of both the regular and auxilary fire services. Another 3,000 London firefighters suffered serious injuries. (More than 1,000 firefighters died across the United Kingdom during the war, including London's losses.)

CHURCHILL - 1940

Photo: Churchill College

Churchill inspects bomb damage in London on Sept. 10, 1940; firemen seem to pay no mind. The Blitz enhanced the public standing of the fire service, and Churchill dubbed its members "Heroes with grimy faces."

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE -1856

On March 5, 1856, fire destroyed the Covent Garden Theatre in London. A bystander reported: "The flames had burst through the roof, throwing high up into the air columns of fire, which threw into bright reflection every tower and spire within the circuit of the metropolis, illuminating St. Paul’s as if gilded with burnished gold."

SHOREDITCH SHOUT - 2010

Photo: Stephen McKay
March 11, 2010 - View from City Road of fire on Worship Street.

DUDGEONS WHARF - 1969

Editor's Note: The following article is rewritten from a report into this incident published in “FIRE” magazine dated November 1970. The 17th July 1969 saw a tragic and sudden explosion take the lives of 5 of London’s firemen; here is the story of what happened.

Dudgeons Wharf on the Isle of Dogs consisted of a “tank farm” of more than 100 tanks of various capacities up to 200,000 gallons and used for storing oils and spirits on a plot which measured 350 ft. x 300 ft. The demolition contractors had received advice on safety before starting the demolition of these tanks to enable regeneration of the site.

Tank 97 on this site was of a welded construction measuring 27 ft in diameter and 35 ft high. It held 125,000 gallons. Two manhole covers, one on the roof and one at ground level, were held shut with steel plates secured by nuts and bolts. This tank had been empty for two years but had previously held Myrcene (a member of the turpentine family). This chemical would leave a thick, gummy deposit on the inside of the tank. This deposit could be easily ignited or when heated would give off a flammable vapour which, if mixed with air, is potentially explosive.

 At 11.21 am on Friday 17th July a call was made to a fire on the North bank of the River Thames at Millwall, covered by London’s “F Division”. Less than 2 weeks before this incident a fire had occurred on the same site where 40 firemen and 8 pumps using 6 jets and 2 foam making branches had tackled a fire involving waste oil in a derelict oil tank. The brigade had also attended numerous other small fires on the site, caused by sparks from hot cutting gear used by workmen cutting the tanks.

On receipt of the call 2 appliances consisting of a pump escape and pump were ordered from Millwall Fire Station and one pump from Brunswick Road. The foam tender from East Ham was also ordered followed later by the fireboat “Massey Shaw” from Greenwich. The fire brigade arrived very quickly with Station Officer Innard in command. He enquired about the fire situation but was given misleading information. He not unreasonably thought that the fire was probably out but decided to make sure by putting a spray branch into the top of the manhole which had been removed from the top of Tank 97.

Sub Officer Gamble with Firemen Appleby, Breen, Carvosso and Smee joined him on top of the tank alongside Mr Adams, one of the workmen. It is thought that using the spray branch caused air to be drawn in and mixed with the flammable vapours given off by the burning or hot Myrcene deposits greatly increasing the risk of an explosion.

Station Officer Innard along with Station Officer Snelling decided to look into the tank from the bottom manhole to see if any fire remained and, if so, direct the positioning of the spray branch. This involved opening the bottom manhole cover. Station Officer Snelling sent a fireman to fetch a spanner to remove the bottom manhole cover. The members of the brigade could not undo the nuts so an unidentified person suggested the nuts should be burned off.

Station Officer Innard descended from the top of the tank to see what was going on. An employee working on the demolition of the tank farm applied a cutting torch to one of the nuts. As soon as the cutting flame was applied to the first nut, the vapours inside the tank ignited almost instantaneously blowing off the roof of the tank together with the 5 firemen and workman. This was probably due to flames or sparks from the cutting torch entering the tank and igniting the explosive mixture within.

D.O. Abbitt had been in the area and, upon hearing of the incident at the riverside wharf, he attended. He arrived at 11.50, just before the explosion occurred at 11.52. Three further pumps from Bethnal Green and Bow were order on at 11.54 following this explosion. Their job was to recover the bodies of the firemen killed.

Those firemen were: Temporary Sub Officer Michael Gamble of F23 Millwall, aged 28, married, 10 years in the brigade. Fireman John Victor Appleby of F22 Brunswick Road, aged 23, married, 3 children, almost 5 years service. Fireman Terrance Breen of F22 Brunswick Road, aged 37, married with 3 children, 12 years service. Fireman Paul Carvosso of C25 Cannon Street, aged 23, married, 1 child, 4 years service. Fireman Alfred Charles Smee of F23 Millwall, aged 47, 1 son, 24 years service.