Holiday inferno
could a 45-year-old fire have stopped the Grenfell tragedy?
On 14 June 2017, people watched in shock as Grenfell Tower burned, killing 72 people. But for some this horrific disaster was history repeating itself. Over 40 years earlier, on 2 August 1973, Summerland leisure centre in Douglas, Isle of Man, ignited in similar circumstances. Of the 3,000 people inside the building, 50 died, including 11 children.
‘Dad’s hair was on fire and we had to run through the flames,’ says survivor
Ruth McQuillanWilson, who was just five at the time. ‘We had to escape over dead bodies and my skin was all melted. I thought I was going to die.’
Bad advice
A public inquiry found the building had been wrapped in highly flammable acrylic plastic sheeting. It also found the advice for people to stay put hampered the evacuation and that sprinklers hadn’t been installed – things that also led to Grenfell’s high death toll 44 years later.
In 2009 a blaze at Lakanal House, south-east London, killed six, including 31-yearold Catherine Hickman. Like the residents of Grenfell, she was told by the fire brigade to stay put and await rescue. Lakanal House also had no sprinkler system and it had recently been refurbished with flammable panels.
‘Nothing can bring Catherine back but you want a bit of justice for her for failings that led to her death,’ says her sister, Elizabeth Watts. ‘This was what was really upsetting about Grenfell. You think, this is just crazy, why has this happened again?’