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Lessons from history What have we learned from past disasters? James Beale highlights three major fires that continue to inform our approach to fire safety
whole of recorded history. For as long as wooden construction, candles and cooking pits have intermingled, fi re has been causing tragedies and teaching us lessons about the protection of people and property. Due to the unpredictable nature of fi re, we
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are still learning about how it spreads and the conditions that can create unseen hazards in the event of a fi re. Inevitably, with each tragedy we learn a little more about the process and how to stop it – be that by mechanical, structural, procedural means, or through education and the enforcement of standards.
King’s Cross fi re
Many of us will remember the King’s Cross fi re in 1987, which was the worst incident to occur on the London Underground network until the 7/7 bombings, almost 20 years later. A small fi re under a wooden escalator appeared to be under control, with trains arriving at the station even while it was being evacuated. However, from being ‘cardboard box sized’, the fi re suddenly took hold of the entire escalator and a few minutes
48 MARCH 2019
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ORE THAN most diseases or disasters, fire has been amongst the most consistent risks to human life for the
later roared up into the ticket hall in a fl ashover. In all, 31 people were killed due to burns or smoke inhalation, and more than 100 were injured. The report into the fi re was damning of the conditions in the Underground network and the complacency with which fi re was treated. In spite of the fi re service’s efforts, offi cial policy was to try to put out the fi re before calling emergency services. The station was severely understaffed at the time, with three people on 90 minute dinner breaks and ticket offi ce staff feeling that they could not leave their post. In addition, all staff lacked any training in fi re protocols or how to use a watermist system, which could have quelled the fire.
As the incline caused gases to build in the
escalator pit before suddenly being propelled forwards, the fi re reacted in a previously unknown fashion – this is now known as the ‘trench effect’. Communication was hampered by the moving of the supervisor’s offi ce due to renovation, the inability to call emergency services from below ground and a lack of initiative on the part of some staff to inform emergency services of the station layout. The layers of paint on the ceiling, the grease below the escalators, and the wooden escalator steps and sidings all contributed to fuelling the fi re.
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