1967 'Its Hydrogen' .... ' Its Hydrogen'

The year 1967, Blackburn Rovers were second in the Second Division having just beaten Bristol Rovers 2-0. The team being: Blacklaw , Newton, Wison, Clayton, Coddington, Rodgers, Helliwell, Dearling, Ferguson and Connely. Burnley were half way up the then First Division now Premier League having just been beaten by Manchester United,

I was a young firefighter still, as the saying goes, a bit wet behind the ears. We then worked the group system which included the dreaded three weekend nights. Yes! Friday/ Saturday/ Sunday night, you can imagine as a young single lad how much I enjoyed working that shift!

On Saturday, 7th September 1967 we started our shift at 1800 hours in the usual manner, checking equipment and a the Fire Engines. I took up my position on the back of the then called ’Major Pump No 10’ unaware of what lay ahead of us that night.

It started with a car fire at Brindle, followed by a television exploding (or as it was more popular in those days to say imploded), this incident occured at Troon Ave Blackburn and the unfortunate resident, a Mrs Doreen King, received slight cuts to her feet. A few hours later saw us responding to a barge fire at Riley Green. On arrival we observed that there were two barges involved and as the saying goes were burning from the blunt end to the sharp end. Sorry about the lack of marine terminology. We soon discoverd that the barges were derelict and were being deliberately burned to get rid of them. Its a pity that no one informed us ! It would have saved everybody a lot of trouble. We also attended a fire at Tommy Balls Shoe warehouse on Cicely Lane. The fire had started in the basement Warehouse in a quantity of cardboard boxes. I remember vividly being stood under the sprinkler system getting soaked to the skin, whilst attempted to locate the fire in the smoke filled warehouse.

The night moved on and in the early morning the bells sounded again, Yes! we had bells in them days and my word were they loud.The call was for two Fire Engines to attend Mullards at Phillips Rd, Blackburn. I remember it so vividly, the officer in charge climbing on the fire engine saying its Mullards ’ Its Hydrogen’, ’Its Hydrogen’. Whilst en-route to the incident we were trying to glean some information on Hydrogen from the Hazardous Loads book ( the only reference we had on hazadous materials). In the meantime a radio message was sent on the only appliace radio we had to inform the Chief Fire Officer, back in the 60’s and early 70’s not every Fire Engine was fitted with a radio.

On arrival at Mullard’s main gate we were met by a gentleman on a motorcycle, who instructed us to follow him to the site of the incident. This was quite usual because of the size of the then Mullard Factory. We rounded a number of buildings closely following the motorcycle. After a short while , we came to a stop ( down the side of a building), with our reluctant guide refusing to go any further. A very wise man I thought. We rounded the building only to be confronted by this deafening noise of the fire. It can only be likened to the sound of a aeroplane jet engine. A frightening noise. Strewn across the ground was the fire hose of the works Firefighting Team , the hose had not been charged with water and the team had obviously decided on better things. I cant say I blame them. The fire comprised of a large diameter pipe which fed hydrogen into a storage tank, the pipe had fractured and the gas ignited. The intensity of the fire had completely melted everything in its path. The officer in charge instructed us to run out cooling jets to cool down the storage tank and associated pipework. Four cooling jets were in use at the height of the blaze.

I remember someone inquiring what would happen if the tank defied gravity, the reply was ” dont even think about it” which was very comforting, because the Works Engineer had just informed us that the temperature had reached a critical point. I looked at my partner on the cooling jet which were directing, and he pointed to what we were crouched behind, they were four twenty foot spheres which were banded together, and yes you guessed it, they contained Hydrogen. At this point dicussions with the then Chief Fire Officer and the Works Engineer had taken place and it was decided to isolate the tank form the effected pipe by turning off the supply valve. Mr Raymond Radcliffe who was employed by Mullards, volunteered to isolate the valve a very heoic act indeed. I remember him placing one of our fire helmets on his head before climbing on to the tank gantry and thinking that helmet would not do much good if in fact the tank exploded.

After being in attendance for some considerable time , Mr Radcliffe managed to isolate the gas supply from the tank to the pipe, and all that remained was to cool the the installation down for a while. The task that Mr Radcliffe carried out was played down , but one thing that I am sure of, is he prevented a great disaster that morning , and the relief on my collegues faces was clearly evident when we had the usual ’after the fire cuppa’.

With the nerve ends a bit frayed, we returned to the Fire Station for breakfast, but fate had other ideas ! We were off again, this time it was the then called Ying Kin Chinese  Restaurant on Salford in the town centre , the premises were part of the Old Market Complex. The fire occurred in the unoccupied kitchen area with considerable damage being caused to the kitchen and smoke damage to the popular town centre restaurant.

We returned to the Fire Station just before our end of shift 0900 hours, only to be reminded that we were playing a friendly football match against a local club that morning. Yes, you’ve guessed it. Mullards Football pitch at Sunny Bower. I cannot remember the outcome of the game, but one thing is certain even all those years ago we had busy nights.

Bob France (Retired Firefghter).