gordondaviesmoustache
Well-Known Member
When people moan about Health and Safety they would do well to remember events like this and Aberfan.
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Woolworths Fire - Manchester 1979
- Thread starter Blue Streak
- Start date
Patientman63
Well-Known Member
I was there watching it.
I was 15, just finished my exams but was too young to get a full time job, so had gone into town to the underground market.
You always imagine if you were caught in something like that you'd be able to get yourself out of it. You wouldn't, you'd be pretty well screwed.
I was 15, just finished my exams but was too young to get a full time job, so had gone into town to the underground market.
You always imagine if you were caught in something like that you'd be able to get yourself out of it. You wouldn't, you'd be pretty well screwed.
G-Star Medium Rare
Well-Known Member
I was working in what is now called North Tower just on the Salford side of the Irwell that day.
I had been for a wander up Market St etc at lunch time, but can't remember if I went into Woolworths or not. By the time I got back to the office, you could see the smoke from the fire from where I was on the 7th floor.
R.I.P. to those who perished. Wasn't it mainly the toxic fumes from the furniture department that caused most of the fatalities?
I had been for a wander up Market St etc at lunch time, but can't remember if I went into Woolworths or not. By the time I got back to the office, you could see the smoke from the fire from where I was on the 7th floor.
R.I.P. to those who perished. Wasn't it mainly the toxic fumes from the furniture department that caused most of the fatalities?
I remember watching it on TV awful scenes of thick acrid black smoke. Think this was from the furniture a previous poster mentioned. I recall the story of the man getting knocked down and also one of someone refusing to leave the restaurant until he had finished. Not sure if the latter is true or a yarn that was spun. I no longer live in Manchester but I loved going in Wollies with my Mam and Dad as a kid. When I was in town recently with a relative from overseas we stopped in Piccadilly and I told her the story of the fire. I work in construction now for big retailers and builders merchants and still Managers are getting sacked for having fire doors blocked and locked which was the case in Wollies too. Thankfully these occasions are rare but it still happens. RIP to all those who lost their lives
Mad Eyed Screamer
Moderator
Thats the problem, too many people watch Hollywood films and think they have 2 or 3 minutes to get outI was there watching it.
I was 15, just finished my exams but was too young to get a full time job, so had gone into town to the underground market.
You always imagine if you were caught in something like that you'd be able to get yourself out of it. You wouldn't, you'd be pretty well screwed.
Once the body has inhaled 4 or 5 times the fumes thats pretty much it. It isnt the fire that kills you but the funes.
I worked for the fire service before emigrating (wasnt a fire fighter) and worked alongside a retired fire fighter who was there... Still couldnt talk about it.
Legislation was brought in after the fire preventing certain materials being used in new sofas.
I remember the newspaper photos of people trapped behind iron bars on the upper floors. Fucking horrible.
I read a book by a pathologist who worked in Manchester and it mentions another bad fatal fire around back Piccadilly a few years later that I don't remember. Aswell as one at Mother Mac's pub ( a murder suicide)
I read a book by a pathologist who worked in Manchester and it mentions another bad fatal fire around back Piccadilly a few years later that I don't remember. Aswell as one at Mother Mac's pub ( a murder suicide)