By dawn’s early light, fire scene
THERE WAS LITTLE LEFT TO SEE OF JOPLINGS STORE AFTER A FIRE WHICH RAGED FOR HOURS – BUT A STORY HAD
Earlier this week, we began the story of Joplings and the December night when it went up in flames. As Christmas fast approached, the unthinkable happened at one of Sunderland’s best known buildings. Sidney Ord was a fireman at the scene and his first-hand account of the event remains in the archives of the Sunderland Antiquarian Society. Sidney would eventually become a Divisional Commander of the brigade, but on December 14, 1954, he was a young fireman at Fulwell Fire Station, Philip Curtis, from the society, has shared Sidney’s eyewitness description with us – starting with him getting a fire pump into position.
Sidney Ord knew the risks as the fire raged. sheets to stop the paintwork peeling with the heat from the fire. I quickly disconnected and, with salvage sheets still attached, drove further up the High Street and round into West Sunniside behind the limousine.” Yet within the space of that short drive, there came a reminder of how fierce the fire was that he was fighting. “As I got out of the cab, someone was hosing down my machine as the salvage sheets were blazing.” He moved the fire pump and, as he was about to realise, he had done it in the nick of time. “At that moment I looked back at the position I had just left in High Street and it was covered with huge coping stones from the collapse of the front of the building. “It was my good luck that