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Post by antharro on Apr 29, 2022 16:29:27 GMT
For anyone looking for something to watch this evening, the Medical Detectives show is covering the Kings Cross fire. It's not the most detailed programme (in general) and I expect technical inaccuracies, but if you have nothing better to do, it's on at 7:30pm on CBS Reality (Sky 146 Freeview 67 Virgin 148 Freesat 135)
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Post by spsmiler on Apr 29, 2022 23:51:07 GMT
I missed it so cannot make a comment on what was / was not said.
I bet though that their coverage is different to my memories of the period leading up to what was a truly awful event - which should never have happened, or at least not been anywhere as severe as it was.
My memories are of national government inspired economies in escalator shaft cleaning --- the areas below the escalators --- to reduce costs these were to be cleaned on alternate nights, instead of nightly. Even during WW2 (when many people smoked and dropped the butts on the ground so that they fell through to the void below the escalators) the escalator shafts were cleaned nightly. That way there was never enough detritus laying about below the escalators to cause a fire.
As was pointed out in Underground News at a later date, the New York Subway may clean escalator shafts on alternate nights but they have a fire alarm system, so were a problem to occur help would be summoned before things go out of hand. In London there was no fire alarm system and quite possibly fitting one at every station with escalators would have been beyond the financial capability of London Transport (as it was in those days).
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DWS
every second count's
Posts: 2,487
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Post by DWS on Apr 30, 2022 6:06:06 GMT
The escalators at Baker Street and Paddington on the Bakerloo Line did have fire alarms when I worked on the line back in 1966. I think that a fire a Paddington had destroyed the escalators at Paddington some time in the past but I do not know the date when this happened .
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Colin
Advisor
My preserved fire engine!
Posts: 11,346
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Post by Colin on Apr 30, 2022 20:13:21 GMT
I was also the culture back then to investigate reports of smouldering (no such thing as a fire on LU!) first and then call the LFB (London Fire Brigade) only if something was found. This delayed the initial response from the LFB which may or may not have made a difference.
Nowadays the LFB is always called first, then an investigation takes place to confirm.
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Post by spsmiler on Apr 30, 2022 22:43:08 GMT
One morning on my way to school I remember seeing negative rail arcing at the back of an eastbound A stock train that had stopped to call at Liverpool Street cause a small fire involving a discarded newspaper that was on the tracks.
I went and found a member of staff who came to see what I was talking about ... he took one look and said "ooo there's a fire", then he went away for a short while to get a fire bucket and within minutes the fire had been extinguished. By this time an eastbound C stock train had arrived on the scene - the driver stopped short of the fire, obviously wary of what could have happened had he driven over it.
Total delay duration - less than 10 minutes, and I got to school on time. I accept that things are done differently nowadays but am not sure that 'different' is always 'better'. In reality the new way of doing things seems to be about maintaining public confidence.
I only experienced the one fire in 8 years of travelling.
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Post by revupminster on May 1, 2022 6:43:33 GMT
What always surprised me considering the flash over destroyed the ticket machines in the booking hall was no staff killed (booking clerks, ticket collectors); they had all got out.
Passenger directed up from the platforms were the ones killed as far as I remember.
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Post by jimbo on May 1, 2022 7:54:27 GMT
I wonder how station staffing levels compare today to at the time of the fire. What difference have the regulations for sub-surface stations made?
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