Blast expert’s son speaks

THE son of the chemical engineer who led the investigation into a catastrophic blast at a row of shops that claimed 22 lives has told how the gas board stopped sending his father his customary bottle of Christmas whisky after his involvement in the inquiry.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the explosion in Clarkston, near Glasgow, which left 100 others injured and devastated the community. It was caused by a build of gas in an underground space beneath the shops.

Engineers had been called to the site the previous day after customers and staff complained they could smell gas. By the next morning, the terrace of shops was given the all- clear, although the smell is said to have lingered.

The force of the blast, equivalent to a 300lb bomb, blew out the front of 10 shops and a passing bus took the full force.

A 19- day fatal accident inquiry, the longest that had been held in Scotland, ruled that the tragic event, on October 21 1971, was accidental and no blame was apportioned.

However, Gordon Gibb, inset, whose late father Dr William Gibb was tasked with piecing through the rubble that night to seek out evidence before it was destroyed during the search for survivors, believes the findings would be different today. The inquiry concluded that the leak was caused by an accidental gas main fracture caused by “stress and corrosion.” “My father produced his report and he told the truth as he always did” said Mr Gibb.

“The inquiry decided that the gas board were not to blame, even though the gas smell had been investigated by them in the preceding days and nothing had been done to address what was clearly a serious notification of impending danger.

“Nevertheless, my father’s evidence made him rather unpopular with the board who, for the first time, in 1972, actually stopped sending him their customary Christmas bottle of whisky.”

Mr Gibb followed in his father’s footsteps and within a week of his graduation was in the Court of Session giving evidence as an expert witness after the burning down of a school in the Hyndland area of Glasgow.

Mr Gibb’s father, who passed away in 2011, had formerly been chairman of the Institute of Fuel.