King's Cross fire
Encyclopedia
The King's Cross St. Pancras tube station fire was a fatal fire
on the London Underground
. It broke out at approximately 19:30 (7:30 PM) on 18 November 1987, and killed 31 people.
It took place at King's Cross St. Pancras
station, a major interchange on the London Underground
. The station consisted of two parts (it has subsequently been expanded), a subsurface station on the Circle, Hammersmith & City
, and Metropolitan Line
s (Note: at the time of the incident, the Hammersmith & City line was considered part of the Metropolitan line) and a deep-level tube station for the Northern
, Piccadilly
, and Victoria Line
s. The fire started in an escalator
shaft serving the Piccadilly Line, which was burnt out along with the top level (entrances and ticket hall) of the deep-level tube station.
The intensity of the fire was initially inexplicable and the forensic investigation resulted in the discovery of a new fluid flow
phenomenon that was completely unknown to the scientific community at the time. The subsequent public inquiry led to the introduction of new fire safety regulations.
. The steps and sides of the escalator were partly made of wood
, which meant that they burned quickly and easily. Although smoking was banned
on the subsurface sections of the London Underground in February 1985 (a consequence of the Oxford Circus fire
that happened that year), the fire
was most probably caused by a traveller discarding a burning match
, which fell down the side of the escalator onto the running track (Fennell 1988, p. 111). The running track had not been cleaned since the escalator was constructed in the 1940s and was covered in grease and fibrous detritus that had built up over the years.
Other possible causes such as arson
and an IRA
bomb were quickly rejected by police as possible causes of the fire because of the lack of damage to the metal sides of the escalator that would have been present in the event of a bomb, or of significant traces of an accelerant as would be expected in an arson.
s into a false sense of security, especially as the fire brigades had attended more than 400 similar tube fires over the previous three decade
s. Firemen later described the fire as around the size and intensity of a campfire. Many people in the ticket hall believed that the fire was small and thus not an immediate hazard: indeed, an evacuation route from the tunnels below was arranged through a parallel escalator tunnel to the ticket hall above the burning escalator. Station staff claimed that the station below the fire did not need to be evacuated because of a belief that "fires rarely burn downwards", saying that there was no fire damage below the starting point of the fire. On the other hand, another consideration is ventilation
; a fire being above does not mean that smoke and other products of incomplete combustion, including carbon monoxide
, will not spread downwards. Alterations to normal ventilation flows are particularly common in underground environments, including tube stations.
The fire started beneath the escalator, spread above it, then flashed over
and filled the ticket hall with flame
s and dense smoke
. Investigations later showed that a particular combination of draughts, caused by an eastbound train arriving at the station at the same time that a westbound train was leaving, created a 12 mph wind through the station and up the escalator (known as the piston effect
; this helps ventilate the tube), increasing the speed at which the fire spread. This wind was however found to be not enough to account for the flashover or the fire's intense ferocity, which was described as similar to a blowtorch.
initially despatched four fire appliances and a turntable ladder, with units from A24 Soho
Fire Station being the first on the scene at 19:42, followed shortly by colleagues from C27 Clerkenwell
, A22 Manchester Square
and A23 Euston
. More than 30 fire crews - over 150 firefighters - were eventually deployed to combat the incident.
A total of 14 ambulances from the London Ambulance Service
fleet ferried the injured to local hospitals including University College Hospital
.
The fire was officially declared extinguished at 01:46 the following day (19 November), although emergency crews remained at the scene until 18:20.
London Fire Brigade station officer Colin Townsley from Soho fire station (call sign A24) was in charge of the first pump fire engine to arrive at the scene and was down in the station concourse at the time of the flashover. As he was making his exit, it is said Townsley spotted a woman in difficulty and stopped to help her. He was not wearing breathing apparatus and was overcome by the smoke. He was later found at the base of the exit steps to Pancras Road by his colleagues, efforts to revive him had little effect, he was rushed to hospital where he later died due to smoke inhalation.
The case of the initially "unidentified man", commonly known as "Body 115" after its mortuary tag number, was finally solved on 22 January 2004, when forensic evidence proved that he was 73-year-old Alexander Fallon of Falkirk
, Scotland. He was subject of a 1990 Nick Lowe
song, Who Was That Man?
found charred wood in 18 places beneath the up escalator, which showed that similar fires had started before but had burnt themselves out without spreading. All these combustion
points were on the right hand side, which is where standing passengers are most likely to light a cigarette: traditionally, passengers stand on the right to let walking passengers pass on the left. Smoking had been banned
for two years there but investigators found this was generally ignored by commuters. They also found a particularly large build-up of grease under the tracks, but it was believed it would be difficult to ignite and slow to burn once it started; however it was noted that the grease was heavily impregnated with paper fragments from discarded tickets, candy
wrappers, fluff from clothing, and both human and rat hair; records showed the under stair tracks had not been cleaned since the escalator was constructed in the 1940s.
A test was conducted where lit matches were to be dropped on the escalator to see if this was the cause. With firemen standing by, the first match dropped ignited the grease and began spreading. This fire was allowed to burn for seven minutes, then extinguished without providing any evidence for why the fire flashed over although the fire replicated the initial eyewitness reports up to that point.
The investigators next enlisted the UK Atomic Energy's research establishment at Harwell
to make a computer simulation
of Kings Cross station. In the early stages of the modelled fire the flames lay down along the floor of the escalator rather than burning vertically and produced a jet of flame into the ticket hall. While the end result matched the actual fire exactly, the simulation's depiction of the fire burning parallel to the 30° slope of the escalator was thought by some to be impossible and it was suspected that the programming might be faulty.
The next step was a scale replica of the escalator, built with the same materials, which was constructed at the UK's Health and Safety Executive
site at Buxton in England. The fire was lit and after seven and a half minutes of normal burning the flames lay down as in the computer simulation. The metal sides of the escalator also served to contain the flames and direct the temperature ahead of the fire. Sensors indicated that wooden treads for 20 feet in front of the flames quickly reached between 500°C and 600°C. When the treads of the escalator flashed over, the size of the fire increased exponentially
and a sustained jet of flame was discharged from the escalator shaft into the ticket hall.
The arrangement of the underground hall and escalators functioned all too effectively as an incinerator due to heat driven convection
added to the usual ventilation system, with temperatures reaching 600°C: a BBC television news
report called the station "an efficient furnace". The 30° angle of the escalators was discovered to be crucial to the incident and the large number of casualties in the fire was an indirect consequence of a fluid flow
phenomenon that was later named the trench effect
, though this phenomenon was completely unknown prior to the fire.
The fire was exacerbated by a solvent
-based paint used on the ceiling above the escalator, which ignited during the flashover, causing the composition of the smoke to change from light and thin to black and oily.
ones except for one unit, which still operates at Greenford station
on the Central Line
, where the escalator is above ground and serves an area that is not enclosed at either end.
Six firemen received Certificates of Commendation for their actions at the fire, including Station Officer Townsley who was given the award posthumously.
A service of remembrance for the victims was held at St. Pancras Church
and a memorial plaque
was unveiled by the Princess of Wales
, with another erected at Kings Cross Station. A commemoration service was also held on 18 November 1997, the tenth anniversary of the blaze, in memory of those who died.
, assisted by a panel of four expert advisers. The inquiry opened at Central Hall, Westminster
on 1 February 1988 and closed on 24 June, after hearing 91 days of evidence.
The Fennell investigation's findings prompted the introduction of the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations 1989 (usually referred to as the Section 12 Regulations because they were introduced under section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971). These led to: the replacement of all wooden escalators in sub-surface Underground stations with metal ones, with the only remaining wooden escalator (as of 2008) located at the above-ground Greenford station
. Additionally, the regulations called for mandatory installation of automatic fire sprinklers
and heat detector
s in escalators, mandatory yearly fire safety
training for all station staff, and improvements in coordination with emergency services. It also led to stringent restrictions on the types of paint permitted for use on the Underground.
The ticket hall and platforms for the subsurface lines were undamaged and reopened the morning after the fire; the Victoria Line, its escalators only slightly damaged, resumed normal operation on the following Tuesday. The ticket hall for the three deep tube lines was reopened in stages over a period of four weeks.
The three escalators for the Piccadilly Line had to be completely replaced. The new ones were commissioned on 27 February 1989, more than 16 months after the fire. Until that time, the only access to the Piccadilly Line was indirect, either via the Victoria Line station or via what was for many years called King's Cross Thameslink and is now the Pentonville Road entrance, and sometimes at peak hours was possible in one direction only.
Access to the Northern Line platforms was already indirect, its escalators connecting only to the Piccadilly Line. As the traffic from all three deep tube lines would have overcrowded the Victoria Line escalators, Northern Line service to the station was completely suspended, the trains running through without stopping, until repairs were complete. The opportunity was taken to replace the nearly life-expired Northern Line escalators as well, which took a few days longer; the Northern Line station reopened, completing the return of King's Cross St. Pancras to normal operation, on 5 March 1989.
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
. It broke out at approximately 19:30 (7:30 PM) on 18 November 1987, and killed 31 people.
It took place at King's Cross St. Pancras
King's Cross St. Pancras tube station
King's Cross St. Pancras is a tube station in the London Borough of Camden, on the London Underground network, serving both King's Cross and main line stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. It is the fourth busiest station on the system and serves more lines than any other...
station, a major interchange on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
. The station consisted of two parts (it has subsequently been expanded), a subsurface station on the Circle, Hammersmith & City
Hammersmith & City Line
The Hammersmith & City line is a subsurface London Underground line. It connects Hammersmith in the west with Barking in the east, running through the northern part of central London. It is coloured salmon pink on the Tube map...
, and Metropolitan Line
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...
s (Note: at the time of the incident, the Hammersmith & City line was considered part of the Metropolitan line) and a deep-level tube station for the Northern
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
, Piccadilly
Piccadilly Line
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with...
, and Victoria Line
Victoria Line
The Victoria line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the south to the north-east of London. It is coloured light blue on the Tube map...
s. The fire started in an escalator
Escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...
shaft serving the Piccadilly Line, which was burnt out along with the top level (entrances and ticket hall) of the deep-level tube station.
Fluid dynamics
In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...
phenomenon that was completely unknown to the scientific community at the time. The subsequent public inquiry led to the introduction of new fire safety regulations.
Cause
The escalator on which the fire started had been built just before World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The steps and sides of the escalator were partly made of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
, which meant that they burned quickly and easily. Although smoking was banned
Smoking ban
Smoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...
on the subsurface sections of the London Underground in February 1985 (a consequence of the Oxford Circus fire
Oxford Circus fire
The Oxford Circus fire occurred on Friday 23 November 1984 at 9:50 p.m. at the London Underground Oxford Circus station. Oxford Circus station is in the heart of London's shopping district and is served by three deep-level tube lines; the Bakerloo Line, Central Line and Victoria Lines...
that happened that year), the fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
was most probably caused by a traveller discarding a burning match
Match
A match is a tool for starting a fire under controlled conditions. A typical modern match is made of a small wooden stick or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat generated by striking the match against a suitable surface...
, which fell down the side of the escalator onto the running track (Fennell 1988, p. 111). The running track had not been cleaned since the escalator was constructed in the 1940s and was covered in grease and fibrous detritus that had built up over the years.
Other possible causes such as arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
and an IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
bomb were quickly rejected by police as possible causes of the fire because of the lack of damage to the metal sides of the escalator that would have been present in the event of a bomb, or of significant traces of an accelerant as would be expected in an arson.
How the fire spread
The lack of visible flames and relatively clean wood smoke produced lulled the emergency serviceEmergency service
Emergency services are organizations which ensure public safety and health by addressing different emergencies. Some agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies whilst others deal with ad hoc emergencies as part of their normal responsibilities...
s into a false sense of security, especially as the fire brigades had attended more than 400 similar tube fires over the previous three decade
Decade
A decade is a period of 10 years. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek dekas which means ten. This etymology is sometime confused with the Latin decas and dies , which is not correct....
s. Firemen later described the fire as around the size and intensity of a campfire. Many people in the ticket hall believed that the fire was small and thus not an immediate hazard: indeed, an evacuation route from the tunnels below was arranged through a parallel escalator tunnel to the ticket hall above the burning escalator. Station staff claimed that the station below the fire did not need to be evacuated because of a belief that "fires rarely burn downwards", saying that there was no fire damage below the starting point of the fire. On the other hand, another consideration is ventilation
Ventilation (architecture)
Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality...
; a fire being above does not mean that smoke and other products of incomplete combustion, including carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
, will not spread downwards. Alterations to normal ventilation flows are particularly common in underground environments, including tube stations.
The fire started beneath the escalator, spread above it, then flashed over
Flashover
A flashover is the near simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain organic materials are heated they undergo thermal decomposition and release flammable gases...
and filled the ticket hall with flame
Flame
A flame is the visible , gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction taking place in a thin zone...
s and dense smoke
Smoke
Smoke is a collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product of fires , but may also be used for pest...
. Investigations later showed that a particular combination of draughts, caused by an eastbound train arriving at the station at the same time that a westbound train was leaving, created a 12 mph wind through the station and up the escalator (known as the piston effect
Piston effect
Piston effect refers to the forced air flow inside a tunnel caused by moving vehicles.-Cause of the Effect:Air in a tunnel is confined by the tunnel walls, hence the movement of air is restricted. In open air, when a vehicle travels along, air is being pushed and can move to any directions except...
; this helps ventilate the tube), increasing the speed at which the fire spread. This wind was however found to be not enough to account for the flashover or the fire's intense ferocity, which was described as similar to a blowtorch.
Emergency response
The London Fire BrigadeLondon Fire Brigade
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London.Founded in 1865, it is the largest of the fire services in the United Kingdom and the fourth-largest in the world with nearly 7,000 staff, including 5,800 operational firefighters based in 112 fire...
initially despatched four fire appliances and a turntable ladder, with units from A24 Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
Fire Station being the first on the scene at 19:42, followed shortly by colleagues from C27 Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
, A22 Manchester Square
Manchester Square
Manchester Square is an 18th century garden square in the Marylebone area in London, England, a short distance north of Oxford Street. It is one of the smaller but better preserved Georgian squares in central London...
and A23 Euston
Euston Road
Euston Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, England, and forms part of the A501. It is part of the New Road from Paddington to Islington, and was opened as part of the New Road in 1756...
. More than 30 fire crews - over 150 firefighters - were eventually deployed to combat the incident.
A total of 14 ambulances from the London Ambulance Service
London Ambulance Service
The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the largest "free at the point of contact" emergency ambulance service in the world. It responds to medical emergencies in Greater London, England, with the ambulances and other response vehicles and over 5,000 staff at its disposal.It is one of 12...
fleet ferried the injured to local hospitals including University College Hospital
University College Hospital
University College Hospital is a teaching hospital located in London, United Kingdom. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London ....
.
The fire was officially declared extinguished at 01:46 the following day (19 November), although emergency crews remained at the scene until 18:20.
Victims
In total, 31 people were killed and more than 60 received injuries ranging from severe burns to smoke inhalation. The fatalities were among those unable to escape from the ticket hall before succumbing to the effects of the latter stages of thick smoke and the intense heat.Fatalities
- Betty Afua Agyapong - student
- Terence Alonzo Best - local authority employee
- Mark David Bryant - cold store supervisor
- Andy Burdett - office worker
- Elizabeth Norma Byers - schoolteacher
- Treena Chappell - bank employee
- Dean T. Cottle - schoolboy (aged 7)
- Susheila Nirmala Cottle - housewife
- Sarah Dearden - financial journalist
- Neville Harold Eve - office worker
- Jane Alison Fairey - stockbroker
- Natalie Angela Falco - widow
- Alexander Fallon - unidentified until 2004
- Jonathan Redvers George - engineer
- Kuttalam Govindarajan - manager, bureau de changeBureau de ChangeA bureau de change or currency exchange is a business whose customers exchange one currency for another. Although originally French, the term bureau de change is widely used throughout Europe, and European travellers can usually easily identify these facilities when in other European countries...
- Graham David Hall - company director
- Michael Holden - local authority employee
- Ralph Humberstone - temporary worker
- Bernadette Frances Kearney - auxiliary nurse
- Michael Anthony Keegan - materials controller
- Mohammed Shoaib Khan - student
- Marco Liberati - student
- Philip Geoffrey Marks - architect
- Laurence Vincent Moran - musician
- Lawrence Sonny Newcombe - staff nurse
- Stephen Alan Parsons - installations manager
- Christopher W. Roome - stockbroker
- Rai Mohabib Singh - assistant manager
- John Fitzgerald Joseph St Prix - self-employed painter and decorator
- Ivan Tarassenko - musician
- Colin James Townsley - London Fire BrigadeLondon Fire BrigadeThe London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London.Founded in 1865, it is the largest of the fire services in the United Kingdom and the fourth-largest in the world with nearly 7,000 staff, including 5,800 operational firefighters based in 112 fire...
station officerStation OfficerStation Officer is a rank in a number of Commonwealth and other fire services, including those in Australia, the United Kingdom and the New Zealand Fire Service.-Australia and New Zealand:...
The case of the initially "unidentified man", commonly known as "Body 115" after its mortuary tag number, was finally solved on 22 January 2004, when forensic evidence proved that he was 73-year-old Alexander Fallon of Falkirk
Falkirk
Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley, almost midway between the two most populous cities of Scotland; north-west of Edinburgh and north-east of Glasgow....
, Scotland. He was subject of a 1990 Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
song, Who Was That Man?
Investigation
While inspecting an undamaged escalator, forensic investigatorsForensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
found charred wood in 18 places beneath the up escalator, which showed that similar fires had started before but had burnt themselves out without spreading. All these combustion
Combustion
Combustion or burning is the sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat and conversion of chemical species. The release of heat can result in the production of light in the form of either glowing or a flame...
points were on the right hand side, which is where standing passengers are most likely to light a cigarette: traditionally, passengers stand on the right to let walking passengers pass on the left. Smoking had been banned
Smoking ban
Smoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...
for two years there but investigators found this was generally ignored by commuters. They also found a particularly large build-up of grease under the tracks, but it was believed it would be difficult to ignite and slow to burn once it started; however it was noted that the grease was heavily impregnated with paper fragments from discarded tickets, candy
Confectionery
Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...
wrappers, fluff from clothing, and both human and rat hair; records showed the under stair tracks had not been cleaned since the escalator was constructed in the 1940s.
A test was conducted where lit matches were to be dropped on the escalator to see if this was the cause. With firemen standing by, the first match dropped ignited the grease and began spreading. This fire was allowed to burn for seven minutes, then extinguished without providing any evidence for why the fire flashed over although the fire replicated the initial eyewitness reports up to that point.
The investigators next enlisted the UK Atomic Energy's research establishment at Harwell
Harwell
Harwell may refer to:*Harwell, Nottinghamshire, England*Harwell, Oxfordshire, England, a village**RAF Harwell, a World War II RAF airfield, near Harwell village....
to make a computer simulation
Computer simulation
A computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system...
of Kings Cross station. In the early stages of the modelled fire the flames lay down along the floor of the escalator rather than burning vertically and produced a jet of flame into the ticket hall. While the end result matched the actual fire exactly, the simulation's depiction of the fire burning parallel to the 30° slope of the escalator was thought by some to be impossible and it was suspected that the programming might be faulty.
The next step was a scale replica of the escalator, built with the same materials, which was constructed at the UK's Health and Safety Executive
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
site at Buxton in England. The fire was lit and after seven and a half minutes of normal burning the flames lay down as in the computer simulation. The metal sides of the escalator also served to contain the flames and direct the temperature ahead of the fire. Sensors indicated that wooden treads for 20 feet in front of the flames quickly reached between 500°C and 600°C. When the treads of the escalator flashed over, the size of the fire increased exponentially
Exponential growth
Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate of a mathematical function is proportional to the function's current value...
and a sustained jet of flame was discharged from the escalator shaft into the ticket hall.
The arrangement of the underground hall and escalators functioned all too effectively as an incinerator due to heat driven convection
Convection
Convection is the movement of molecules within fluids and rheids. It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids....
added to the usual ventilation system, with temperatures reaching 600°C: a BBC television news
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
report called the station "an efficient furnace". The 30° angle of the escalators was discovered to be crucial to the incident and the large number of casualties in the fire was an indirect consequence of a fluid flow
Fluid dynamics
In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...
phenomenon that was later named the trench effect
Trench effect
The trench effect is a combination of circumstances that can rush a fire up an inclined surface. It depends on two well-understood but separate ideas: the Coandă effect from fluid dynamics and the flashover concept from fire dynamics....
, though this phenomenon was completely unknown prior to the fire.
The fire was exacerbated by a solvent
Solvent
A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...
-based paint used on the ceiling above the escalator, which ignited during the flashover, causing the composition of the smoke to change from light and thin to black and oily.
Aftermath
As a result of the disaster, smoking was totally banned in all London Underground stations, including the escalators. Furthermore, all of the Underground's WWII-era wooden escalators were replaced with modern steelSteel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
ones except for one unit, which still operates at Greenford station
Greenford station
Greenford station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Greenford, Greater London, and is owned and managed by LUL. It is the terminus of the National Rail Greenford Branch Line, and is in Travelcard Zone 4.-History:...
on the Central Line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
, where the escalator is above ground and serves an area that is not enclosed at either end.
Six firemen received Certificates of Commendation for their actions at the fire, including Station Officer Townsley who was given the award posthumously.
A service of remembrance for the victims was held at St. Pancras Church
St Pancras New Church
St Pancras Parish Church, sometimes referred to as St Pancras New Church to distinguish it from St Pancras Old Church, is a 19th century Greek Revival church in London, England.-Location:...
and a memorial plaque
Commemorative plaque
A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event...
was unveiled by the Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
, with another erected at Kings Cross Station. A commemoration service was also held on 18 November 1997, the tenth anniversary of the blaze, in memory of those who died.
The Fennell Report
A public inquiry into the incident was conducted by Mr. Desmond Fennell, QCQueen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, assisted by a panel of four expert advisers. The inquiry opened at Central Hall, Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
on 1 February 1988 and closed on 24 June, after hearing 91 days of evidence.
The Fennell investigation's findings prompted the introduction of the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations 1989 (usually referred to as the Section 12 Regulations because they were introduced under section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971). These led to: the replacement of all wooden escalators in sub-surface Underground stations with metal ones, with the only remaining wooden escalator (as of 2008) located at the above-ground Greenford station
Greenford station
Greenford station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Greenford, Greater London, and is owned and managed by LUL. It is the terminus of the National Rail Greenford Branch Line, and is in Travelcard Zone 4.-History:...
. Additionally, the regulations called for mandatory installation of automatic fire sprinklers
Fire sprinkler
A fire sprinkler system is an active fire protection measure, consisting of a water supply system, providing adequate pressure and flowrate to a water distribution piping system, onto which fire sprinklers are connected...
and heat detector
Heat detector
A heat detector is a fire alarm device designed to respond when the convected thermal energy of a fire increases the temperature of a heat sensitive element....
s in escalators, mandatory yearly fire safety
Fire safety
Fire safety refers to precautions that are taken to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a fire that may result in death, injury, or property damage, alert those in a structure to the presence of a fire in the event one occurs, better enable those threatened by a fire to survive, or to reduce the...
training for all station staff, and improvements in coordination with emergency services. It also led to stringent restrictions on the types of paint permitted for use on the Underground.
Repairs to the station
The three escalators for the Piccadilly Line had to be completely replaced. The new ones were commissioned on 27 February 1989, more than 16 months after the fire. Until that time, the only access to the Piccadilly Line was indirect, either via the Victoria Line station or via what was for many years called King's Cross Thameslink and is now the Pentonville Road entrance, and sometimes at peak hours was possible in one direction only.
Access to the Northern Line platforms was already indirect, its escalators connecting only to the Piccadilly Line. As the traffic from all three deep tube lines would have overcrowded the Victoria Line escalators, Northern Line service to the station was completely suspended, the trains running through without stopping, until repairs were complete. The opportunity was taken to replace the nearly life-expired Northern Line escalators as well, which took a few days longer; the Northern Line station reopened, completing the return of King's Cross St. Pancras to normal operation, on 5 March 1989.
See also
- Sir Neil ShieldsNeil ShieldsSir Neil Stanley Shields, OBE, MC was a British politician and businessman.Shields was born in London and served as a major in the Royal Artillery in World War II, during which time he was awarded the Military Cross. In 1949 he unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative Party parliamentary...
- National Geographic Seconds From Disaster episodes
- Daegu subway fireDaegu subway fireThe Daegu subway fire was a mass murder suicide attack on February 18, 2003 which killed at least 198 Koreans and injured at least 147. An arsonist set fire to a train stopped at the Jungangno Station of the Daegu Metropolitan Subway in Daegu, South Korea...
External links
- Fire tactics: King's Cross fire
- BBC News 'On This Day' report
- ITN News at Ten coverage of the incident
- ASLEF union website on Section 12 regulations
- Fire Brigade operations - London Fire Journal
- London Underground - Fire Dynamics