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Summerland Memorial
3 Aug 2013 01:13 pmLast night D-d and I went to a memorial service for the 50 people killed in the Summerland Disaster 40 years ago.
This was her idea - she has been doing some legal work where the disaster formed part of the background research and she now knows a lot about both what went before and what went after.
For me - I thought of my cousin, then a 23 year old newly recruited policeman in his first month on the job, doing orientation before even going to do his basic training. He found himself involved with the immediate aftermath, like so many other emergency service workers.
Summerland. Summerland was wonderful - it was a whole new concept for people to enjoy themselves when it was wet outdoors - an entertainment complex which was of a type that is commonplace now - but was new in 1971. It was billed as 'the biggest and most innovative indoor entertainment centre in the world'.
( Here is a picture of how I remember it... )
But on August 2nd 1973 a small fire, started by a couple of teenaged boys smoking a couple of illicit cigarettes, started a fire which became a raging inferno in almost no time.
( Picture and talk about fire... )
It is only right and fitting that, at last, there is now a proper memorial with all 50 names engraved on it, dedicated at that outdoor service that D-d and I, along with about 200 others, attended yesterday.
This was her idea - she has been doing some legal work where the disaster formed part of the background research and she now knows a lot about both what went before and what went after.
For me - I thought of my cousin, then a 23 year old newly recruited policeman in his first month on the job, doing orientation before even going to do his basic training. He found himself involved with the immediate aftermath, like so many other emergency service workers.
Summerland. Summerland was wonderful - it was a whole new concept for people to enjoy themselves when it was wet outdoors - an entertainment complex which was of a type that is commonplace now - but was new in 1971. It was billed as 'the biggest and most innovative indoor entertainment centre in the world'.
( Here is a picture of how I remember it... )
But on August 2nd 1973 a small fire, started by a couple of teenaged boys smoking a couple of illicit cigarettes, started a fire which became a raging inferno in almost no time.
( Picture and talk about fire... )
It is only right and fitting that, at last, there is now a proper memorial with all 50 names engraved on it, dedicated at that outdoor service that D-d and I, along with about 200 others, attended yesterday.