Stardust, Top Storey & eastwood Mills fires

[AnthonyB]

Those of you who have known me for a while on here know I'm striving to find as much background on key fires in UK history that influenced legislation & guidance.

I'm over halfway through my search and am down to the last three.

Stardust Disco fire, 1981 - Inquiry report on the way from the archives, so I can make info available for anyone else who wants to know more. Incidentally in 2006 the Irish version of 'Panorama' put forward a new (& more convincing) theory on the origin of the fire, using some existing info that had been withheld or inaccurately given to the inquest and as a result of this & pressure from relatives a report was made into the possibility of re-opening the public inquiry. Earlier this year (2009) the Dail decided it was not in the public interest to re-open the inquiry but that they would change the public record to remove reference to arson.

Fire on 25th February, 1956, at Messrs. Franklin, Eastwood Mills, Lorne Street, Keighley - No record of any report on file, but lecture notes were prepared by West Riding Fire Service, but are not in the archives - does anyone have a copy of these or any detailed report (e.g. from the FIRE journal)?

Top Storey Club, Bolton - Request in with HM Coroner for release of selected parts of the inquest.

As before anyone with anything in their own personal collection of information please contact me.

Don't mention the Fire Service College, they guard their stuff like the Crown Jewels & sadly their collection is not duplicated at the British Library (who are more willing to provide copies)

 

[SmokeyDokey]

Anthony, Although many have said there was a public inquiry into the Eastwood Mill fire in Keighly, I'm not sure that ever really happened. There was an inquest into the 8 deaths and the company was prosecuted so court records may well be of assistance - someone has probably previously requested a transcript which usually helps. Much of what came out of it all is described in Hansard at:
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1956/may/18/mill-fire-keighley

[John Webb]

Anthony,

Having been involved in the background of a number of tests carried out by the Fire Research Station in connection with the Stardust fire, I am interested to hear there are fresh ideas about the start of the fire. Any links available to this new information? Do PM me if you wish.

[SmokeyDokey]

For the Top Storey Club, the link below may help but it's probably worth contacting the paper direct to see where they got their info from.

http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2001/5/8/679428.html

[yellowjacket]

Updated stardust report here: http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PB09000021

[John Webb]

Thanks, yellowjacket, for that link. Most interesting reading - and the size of the appendices!

I saw a number of the tests done by FRS - in some cases I was there in a safety capacity. In particular the final test was quite spectacular; but as this new report says they were not looking at the possibility of fire above the ceiling - at the time the most substantial evidence was for the fire starting in the alcove.

It certainly would be difficult after this time to review the FRS work, several of the senior officers involved are no longer alive for a start.

[AnthonyB]

Thanks to all who've replied so far.

The most detail I have on Eastwoods is in an FBU handook for FPO's as to how to draw up & enforce the new '61 Factories Act Fire Certs - it's decribed in the intro section for a couple of paragraphs.

I will look into the eastwood fire further - the inquest is a last resort (as it was with my obtaining the Hendersons info & ongoing with Top Storey)as there are lots of hoops to jump through to persuade the Coroner to waive the 75 year rule to allow access & they can always  refuse.

I've seen the Top Storey newspaper link before, it is a fair summary, but I hope to get the more detailed tech account if possible.

For those who haven't time to read the full update on Stardust, a summary of the 2006 theory is:
- The arson & initial fire in seating theory is flawed
- fire was seen from the roof level by people outside well before fire was observed in the seating area
- the lamp room & store were on a mezzanine & much closer to the roof space than shown on the plan seen by the inquiry
- the store's inventory was not put before the inquest & as well as the 'usual' items actually contained sigificant amounts of highly flammable & spontaneously combustible materials
- the lamp room, which was next to a store, had a history over recent weeks of having electrics that smoked and sparked