Summerland Memorial

[curiouswombat]

Last 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'.







There were play areas for small children, a cinema and games area for older children, a disco underneath the main area, bars, restaurants...


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.




There were 3,000 people in the building, no-one realised the seriousness of the situation at first. Children's entertainment areas were on the mezzanine floors, many of the parents were in the central hall listening to a concert - so even as the seriousness became apparent many adults began to go up the staircases that those very children, and others, were trying to come down. And then the wonderful new Oroglass that much of it was built from simply all went on fire at once, and melted down onto those below.



What is amazing is that only 50 people were killed. But remember the population of the island was only 56,000. Of course not all of them were local, by any means, and one holidaying family lost 5 members.

But if you compare those figures with the deaths of 9/11 - 2,752 killed when the population of New York city was over 8,000,000 - and you can see just how much of an impact it made on all the emergency services, and the whole population. I can remember the first thing I knew about it was the sirens going off to call our local, volunteer, firemen out and, as usual, the people of our small town trying to find out where the fire was - only for word to circulate quickly that they were going up to Douglas (13+ miles away) as there was a fire in Summerland. The true scale and horror only really filtered through to us by the next morning - no mobile phones and instant TV coverage then.

Of course there were stories of heroism, but also many stories of stupidity - ground floor fire-exits were found to be chained closed to stop people opening them and coming in without paying, for instance. That horrifies us now - but was common practice worldwide back then - as was putting the children's areas high up (young legs would cope better with stairs than the elderly would...), and taking the word of the manufacturer that a new product was not inflammable...

In the end the enquiry decided that no one individual was to blame - the Public Inquiry came to the conclusion that 'there were "no villains" - just human beings who made mistakes'.

D-d has read a lot of this and she says it was probably the best verdict. These days people would be screaming that there must be someone to blame - but it really was just a whole series of errors that were not questioned at all at the time because they were normal practice.

The only good thing that came out of it is that building regulations and safety regulations world-wide were changed in light of it, and many, many, people throughout the world probably owe their lives to that - so many over the past 30+ years who escaped from buildings where there was a 'not too serious fire' who do not realise that it only remained 'not too serious' because of better regulation and knowledge.

But that is little comfort to the families who know that there should be another uncle and probably more cousins at family gatherings, or who never met their grandparents because they died, in their forties, at Summerland - and so on. Or those who still have nightmares about fire, or about the task they did picking through the ashes trying to decide if something may, or may not, have been a person the day before.




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.

Comments

[gillo]

I remember that tragedy, and being horrified by it. I'm glad there's a proper memorial now.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

As I was reading this, it came to me that I had heard of this - I seem to remember my family talking about it. A terrible thing!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

That is so upsetting! Things like that used to happen with monotonous regularity in Mexico (it felt like a societal fatalistic acceptance that they were a part of life!). There were so many dangerous practices in place in markets and public settings. Cooking with shoddy gas tanks in temporary markets on crowded city streets. Using ridiculous electrical setups, stringing extension cords all over the place with the resultant electrical fires, etc. I just learned the kind of places to stay away from or when not to be there--no visiting the absolutely fabulous Christmas street market only a neighborhood over from ours during the prime crowded hours.

Those kind of disasters profoundly affect most communities in which they occur. In the small town where I grew up there was an infamous movie theater fire in the 1940s--not nearly the number of lives lost as in your example above, but like you said also comparatively had a huge affect upon a very small community.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I went to university about 5 or 6 weeks later. Last night K asked me did lots of people ask me about it, and I had to say that I really couldn't remember, but I'm sure they must have.

I do remember that my sister and her friend were visiting our aunt, in one of the northern villages, and Aunty Lily was taking them to Summerland, as a treat for her as well as them, that day.

We didn't have a phone at home - and when news began to spread on the Sunday morning I remember Mum saying that, of course, they would have already left by then to get the bus. And, knowing, now, that she must have been reassuring herself as much as me.

And, of course, she was quite right - they had got a bus back north about 5.30.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think, at the time, everyone in Britain must have been talking about it - there were awful pictures on the front of all the UK papers, and on the television, and so on.

Most of the dead were UK holiday makers - and yet it seems, now, to have slipped out of the UK national consciousness.

And, in a way, I think most of the island is quite glad - it is such a sad memory for so many.

[gillo]

I was thinking that - it was the week A Level results came out. And, yes, your Mum must have been terrified. I'm glad she turned out to be right.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I remember that though I was young at the time. A great tragedy. There was a similiar place in Rhyl that was closed soon afterwards.

[lindi.livejournal.com]

This is so sad to read. I didn't know about it until i read it here today :( glad there is a proper memorial now.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh - I can just imagine the street markets. I'd have kept myself and family away at the bust times, too.

So many tragedies that are caused by dangerous practices over the years. And the best that can be said of this one was that lessons genuinely were learned - but, sadly, not by everyone.

There was, too, a sort of sense that it was better not to talk about it, that talking about it would stop people getting over it... was that was true in your small town, too, do you think?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I was 18. I didn't know about the place in Rhyl - I bet it had a lot of orroglass in it too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was a real tragedy - but it was quickly forgotten - almost on purpose, I think - no-one wanted the island to be thought of as 'the place with the fire'. But reading around just a little it does seem to have changed the laws in the UK and further afield. Things like the locked fire-doors were not illegal anywhere before that! So hard to imagine that now, isn't it?

It is quite a nice memorial - 3 granite standing stones in a small garden.

[shirebound]

What a tragic event. :(

I'm in favor of memorials so that things like this, and the people involved, aren't forgotten.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We are so used to our instant communications, aren't we? It is hard to imagine, now, a scenario where Aunty Lily would not have known about it by 9pm, and immediately rung Mum up to say they were fine - if the girls hadn't already sent messages from the bus on the way back to Ballaugh telling everyone what a good time they'd had!

[debris4spike]

I was 10 when it happened so don't really know about that - thanks for that history lesson.

I agree with D-D that the verdict of people being human and making mistakes is good.

Sad loss of life, but many were saved.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Fire is always a scary thing.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of this, but what a horrifying and terrifying and heartbreaking story. I'm glad there's a memorial now. I think these things need to be remembered for both personal reasons - to honor those who were lost and those who lost them - and also to remind all of us to think, to take care and not cut corners when building are planned and then erected, to do our best to avoid the heartbreak. Sometimes it will find us anyway, but we don't have to make it easier.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

What a horrific thing to have happened. At least improvements in building codes resulted, but that's small comfort to those who lost loved ones. I'm glad your family members left before it happened... what a close call!

[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

I don't remember this at all, but then in those days I did not have a TV. Such a sad effect on your small community. I am so sorry. The only positive thing to come from it was the overhaul of existing law at the time.

[clodia-metelli.livejournal.com]

Oh my lord. I hadn't heard of Summerland before. It does seem incredible that only ("only!") 50 died.

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

I must say I'd never heard of it before, but how terrible - good there's a memorial now

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a simple, but effective memorial, of three standing stones with the names engraved on them.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

It was ancient history already at the time when I was a little kid, so I do not actually know. A lot of things I heard about as a kid happened "before the fire" and "after the fire." So it was a big marker in people's consciousness. Also destroyed an apartment building, where I do not think anyone died, but it was the only big one in town and recently built with a lot of nice homes in it. I heard a lot of that also: "So-and-so family lost their home in the theater fire." (I do not think people had the all-inclusive insurance for things like that in those days either.)

Local history is interesting in different ways than big world historic events.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

How incredibly tragic.

I know we all moan about 'health and safety' and 'risk assessment' but it really has made a difference hasn't it.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is odd, as an recent article said, that some fires, like the King's Cross one, are quoted over and over again, and make it into 'books of great disasters' and so on, whereas others aren't mentioned. And, to be honest, I'm not sure that the island really wants to be remembered as 'the disaster place', so we are happy enough that it isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

I agree with her, too, about the verdict being fair. And it is amazing that so many did survive.

Actually one 18 year old working for the summer as a barman survived inside it and was rescued the next day when they were looking for bodies! I knew him a little, and D-d met him, in a totally different context a couple of years ago. He realised he was trapped, and turned on the taps in the stillroom, covered himself with wet cloth and crawled into the cupboard under the sink. I think it might have been against the concrete wall.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

At least, since then, the properties of new materials in fire have to be very rigorously tested - so hopefully a few have been scary but survivable since.