THE SUMMERLAND DISASTER, 3rd, AUGUST 1973

Eric Robson reports on the Summerland Fire on the Isle of Man.

Summerland was opened on 25 May 1971. A climate-controlled building covering 3.5 acres (14,000 m2) on Douglas's waterfront, consisting of 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) of floor area at a cost of £ 2 million. Summerland was designed to accommodate up to 10,000 tourists and comprised a dance area, five floors of holiday games, restaurants and public bars. It was a 1960s concrete design incorporating advanced controlled internal climate, built with novel construction techniques using new plastic materials. The street frontage and part of the roof were clad in a transparent acrylic glass sheeting called Oroglas.

The fire started around 7:30 pm on the night of 2 August 1973 in a small kiosk adjacent to the centre's mini-golf course. Eventually the burning kiosk slumped against the exterior of the building. This part of the building was clad in a bitumen-coated steel material called Galbestos, which had limited fire-resistance qualities. This set fire to the interior sound-proofing material, which also had poor fire-resistance qualities, causing an explosion which ignited the highly flammable acrylic sheeting which covered the rest of the building. The fire spread quickly across the sheeting on the leisure centre walls and roof, and through vents which were not properly fire proofed. The acrylic melted, which allowed more oxygen to enter and dropped burning melted material, both starting other fires and injuring those trying to escape. The building's open-plan design included many unblocked internal spaces that acted as chimneys adding to the conflagration.

The fire services were not called for almost thirty minutes, and even then the call did not originate from the centre. Instead the emergency call came via the captain of a ship located 2 miles (3.2 km) out at sea who radioed HM Coastguard and said "It looks as if the whole of the Isle of Man is on fire". The Coastguard immediately called the fire brigade.

There was no attempt to evacuate the 3,000 people present until the visible evidence of the flames prompted a panic-stricken mass rush for the exits, where many people were crushed and trampled because of the locked doors. Because of the locked fire doors many people headed to the main entrance, which caused a crush.

The first responding fire crews immediately realised additional resources would be required and every available resource in the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service was mobilised to the incident.

50 people died in the fire. The number of fatalities was worsened by the failure of power supplies and emergency generators, inadequate ventilation and locked fire doors. The death-toll brought about a public inquiry which ran from September 1973 to February 1974. No specific individuals or groups were blamed and the deaths were attributed to misadventure: the delay in evacuation and the flammable building materials were condemned. Changes to Building Regulations to improve fire safety were introduced. The centre was seriously damaged by the fire. It was demolished, rebuilt on a smaller scale, and re-opened in 1978. It finally closed in 2004 and was demolished in 2005.

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[Mengoraa]

The Second boy to be interviewed (before the girl) is my dad =D

[BORDERFILMARCHIVE]

If you'd like to give me his name I'd be happy to add his details to the synopsis.

[The1Celt]

My Father ran a construction company at the time and had Brochours showing the use of Oroglas throughout the UK. Somebody must have suggested using it and i would imagine it was supplied by a UK company.

[NJPurling]

Apparently the IOM Parliament, Tynwald was allowed to issue 'waivers' in the case of Summerland that allowed un-tested materials to be used.

The Colour Galbestos sheeting, the Oroglas panels and the sound-proofing material. Was this known as Deccalin?

Anyway, the suggestion was that these materials were unfit under British Standards applicable at the time and would not have been used.