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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that honors the dead by sharing their stories with

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Speaker 1: the living. I'm Gabe Lousier and today we're reflecting on

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Speaker 1: one of the worst peacetime fires in British history and

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Speaker 1: on the courageous first responders who gave their lives to

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Speaker 1: put it out. The day was March twenty eighth, nineteen sixty.

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Speaker 1: An explosive fire at a whiskey warehouse claimed the lives

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Speaker 1: of fourteen firefighters and five members of the Glasgow Salvage Corps.

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Speaker 1: The event was and still is, the largest peacetime loss

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Speaker 1: of life ever suffered by the UK's Fire and Rescue services.

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Speaker 1: The blaze was first reported at seven fifteen that evening

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Speaker 1: by George Pinkstone, the superintendent of the El Dorado Ice

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Speaker 1: Cream Company. He had smelled burning wood, and after stepping

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Speaker 1: outside to investigate, he noticed smoke coming from a second

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Speaker 1: floor window of the adjoining warehouse. The building in question

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Speaker 1: was the Rbuckle Smith and Company Whisky Bond, which was

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Speaker 1: located on Cheapside Street in the Anderston section of Glasgow.

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Speaker 1: To this day, no one knows exactly how the fire started,

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Speaker 1: but once it did, there was plenty of fuel to

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Speaker 1: keep it burning. The bonded warehouse contained well over a

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Speaker 1: million gallons of whisky in vats and barrels, and more

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Speaker 1: than thirty thousand gallons of rum. Officials knew that if

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Speaker 1: the fire wasn't contained quickly, it would have no trouble

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Speaker 1: spreading to the neighboring buildings, a tobacco warehouse and the

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Speaker 1: aforementioned ice cream factory. Six minutes after the call came in,

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Speaker 1: the first cruise ved at the scene and began working

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Speaker 1: to extinguish the blaze. Soon after, they were joined by

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Speaker 1: the Saint Mungo fireboat, which had traveled along the River

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Speaker 1: Clyde from a nearby marine fire station. By that point,

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Speaker 1: firefighters had already entered the front of the warehouse to

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Speaker 1: search for the fire's point of origin. Meanwhile, on Waroak

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Speaker 1: Street at the back of the warehouse, another crew was

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Speaker 1: working to extinguish flames that were spilling out of a

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Speaker 1: ground floor window. More fire chiefs arrived a few minutes later,

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Speaker 1: and after assessing the situation, they decided three additional pumps

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Speaker 1: were needed, bringing the total number on the scene to eight.

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Speaker 1: The request was sent at seven forty nine pm, but

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Speaker 1: just moments later, the liquor inside the warehouse ignited and

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Speaker 1: all hell broke loose. The massive explosion toppled the sixty

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Speaker 1: foot high walls at the front and back of the building,

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Speaker 1: burying the crew members on either side. On Cheapside Street,

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Speaker 1: three firefighters were killed instantly by the falling rubble, and

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Speaker 1: on Warock Street the death toll was even higher. When

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Speaker 1: the back walls collapsed, eleven firefighters were crushed to death,

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Speaker 1: as were five members of the Glasgow Salvage Corps. The

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Speaker 1: explosion made the task of the surviving firefighters even harder.

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Speaker 1: Not only had it greatly reduced their manpower, it also

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Speaker 1: blasted flaming whiskey barrels into the streets, creating rivers of

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Speaker 1: burning liquor that threatened to start new fires. The entire

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Speaker 1: city was bathed in an eerie orange glow, and bright

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Speaker 1: blue flames as high as forty feet were reported. Every

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Speaker 1: firefighter and the Greater Glasgow area, off duty or not,

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Speaker 1: was called in to fight the blaze. In total, four

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty crew members responded, but despite their best efforts,

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Speaker 1: the fire still spread to the neighboring buildings by the

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Speaker 1: time it was finally extinguished nearly a full week later,

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Speaker 1: the whiskey and the tobacco warehouse, the ice cream factory

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Speaker 1: and a shipyard were all destroyed. The firefighters and Salvage

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Speaker 1: Corps members who gave their lives in defense of their

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Speaker 1: city were laid to rest at a tomb in the

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Speaker 1: Glasgow Necropolis. One of their surviving comrades, Fireman James Dunlop,

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Speaker 1: was awarded the George Medal for Civilian Gallantry and recognition

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Speaker 1: of his bravery. The Cheapside Fire of nineteen sixty had

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Speaker 1: a lasting impact on Scotland's largest city. It validated the

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Speaker 1: concerns that the Fire Brigades Union had been expressing for years,

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Speaker 1: including the need for stricter fire safety regulations and citywide

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Speaker 1: fire inspections. Unfortunately, those much needed reforms were slow to

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Speaker 1: be adopted, and Glasgow would suffer several more devastating fires

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Speaker 1: in the following decade. The worst of the bunch was

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight, when a furniture factory just a

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Speaker 1: few blocks away from Cheapside Street caught fire and twenty

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Speaker 1: two workers were killed deadly. Fires were so prevalent in

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Speaker 1: Glasgow between the nineteen forties and nineteen seventies that had

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Speaker 1: earned the nickname tinderbox City. Glasgow's propensity for fires stemmed

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Speaker 1: not only from the Scottish whiskey industry and its highly

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Speaker 1: flammable products, but from the large number of nineteenth century

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Speaker 1: buildings it still contained. Glasgow was once a major port city,

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Speaker 1: and many cavernous warehouses had been built along its waterfront

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Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds. Most of them were too large

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Speaker 1: for sprinkler systems to be effective, and the materials and

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Speaker 1: techniques used to construct them weren't chosen with fire safety

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Speaker 1: and mind. All of that was also true of cities

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Speaker 1: like London and Berlin, but many of their problematic structures

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Speaker 1: had been destroyed during World War Two. Glasgow, on the

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Speaker 1: other hand, had been spared the brunt of those bombings,

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Speaker 1: leaving most of its fire prone architectures still intact and

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Speaker 1: ready to burn. In the mid nineteen seventies, on the

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Speaker 1: heels of yet another deadly fire, city planners began to

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Speaker 1: rethink the way they designed and constructed buildings, and Glasgow

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Speaker 1: officials finally devoted more resources to fire prevention and management.

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Speaker 1: The changes were gradual, but over time Glasgow shook off

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Speaker 1: its reputation as tinderbox city and became a much safer

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Speaker 1: and more fire resistant place to live. Today, a memorial

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Speaker 1: service for the victims of the Cheap Side Fire will

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Speaker 1: be held in Glasgow, just as it is each year.

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Speaker 1: In that way, the residents continue to honor the memory

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Speaker 1: of the fallen men whose self sacrifice helped secure the

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Speaker 1: rebirth of their city. The names of those first responders

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Speaker 1: were James Calder, John McPherson, John Allen, Christopher Boyle, Gordon Chapman,

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Speaker 1: William Crockett, Archibald Darrow, Daniel Davidson, Alfred Dickinson, Alexander Gracie,

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Speaker 1: George McIntyre, Edward McMillan, Ian McMillan, William Watson, Edward Murray,

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Speaker 1: James McClellan, Gordon McMillan, James Mungle, and William Oliver. May

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Speaker 1: they rest in peace. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show,

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Speaker 1: consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI

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Speaker 1: HC Show. You can also rate and review the show

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or you can drop me a line

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Speaker 1: directly by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class