At 1936hrs Wednesday 18th November 1987 the London Fire Brigade were called to a fire at Kings Cross Underground Station. Fire appliances from the nearest fire station, Euston, were attending another call at University College Hospital, so appliances from Soho were dispatched to the scene. Euston firefighters were to join their Soho colleagues soon after the ‘Assistance Message’, “Make Pumps Four Persons Reported” was received. The tragic events that followed were well documented in the news media and caught the attention of the whole nation.
During the course of operations over 30 fire crews attended this fire which was to claim the lives of 31 people, one of whom was Station Officer Colin Townsley of A24 Soho. Firefighters rescued dozens of people in heat so intense that few had experienced anything like it before. It was to be 0146hrs on the 19th before the ‘Stop’ message, (informing Brigade Control that the fire was out), was sent by Assistant Chief Officer Joe Kennedy.
A service of remembrance was held at St. Pancras Church and a memorial plaque
was unveiled by HRH The Princess of Wales. A similar plaque at Kings Cross Station
also stands testimony to those that died. On November 18th 1997, the tenth anniversary,
a service of commemoration was held in memory of those who died, suffered and
continue to suffer from the events of that tragic November night.
Below: John Edgar A23 Euston Red Watch, second from right front row, receives the Queens Commendations for Brave conduct at Buckingham Palace.
THE AGONY AND THE WOE OF IT
A child cries loudly in the night, it’s mother
sharply coughs,
For death has made an early start, at kind and creed it scoffs.
Lost race against a ticking clock to infants’s cot is run,
Loved one is gathered up, the last maternal act is done.
The infant and it’s mother soon unconscious of their doom,
Await the gasping Firemen in the corner of the room.
Charles Clisby
COMPLICATING FACTORS
I lay and smoked and wondered,
After we got back last night,
Child at fire had turned quite black,
Never seen black turn white!
How is that explained away?
Racialist could put me right.
Whispered little prayer for it.
Thanked God that I’m not bright.