NOVEMBER 18 OF 1987 WAS one of the worst days in the history of the London Underground (Subway).  It was on that tragic day that a fire on the platform of the King’s Cross station took the lives of 31 people including a firefighter, Colin Townsley.

The King’s Cross station, one of the busiest on the entire tube railway system, is a large interchange that is built on two levels.  The first is a sub-surface platform that serves two lines and the other is a deep-level platform serving three other lines including the Picadilly Line.  Also, the station was still equipped with the old wooden escalators and original machinery.  The escalator trough was loaded with decades of oil drippings and trash.

Sometime prior to 7:30 pm a carelessly discarded cigarette dropped down into the space below the escalator leading to the Picadilly Line and started a fire.  As it spread into the grease track that runs beneath the treads, the fire laid down and burned horizontally along the track instead of vertically where it would have been noticed sooner.  It is believed that the air pressures from the trains pushing through the tubes generated the air flow that led to this effect.

Around 7:32 smoke began showing around the balustrade of the escalator and a call went to the London Fire Brigade shortly after.  At 7:36 the fire brigade dispatched four engines and one aerial and the first unit arrived at 7:42.  This first company of firefighters went down from street level into the ticketing hall from where they could see a fire burning about 20 feet down the escalator shaft with four feet high flames emerging from the escalator stairs. At this stage there were still passengers exiting from the platforms below in an orderly manner.

While two of the firefighters remained to close off passenger access to the escalator, the others returned to get their hose and SCBA’s.  All this time the fire was laying along the trackway and heating the wooden treads of the escalator.  Suddenly at 7:45 the heat had reached the level to cause a flashover and fire erupted like a torch throughout the escalator pathway.  The jet of flame reached into the ticketing hall above and set everything flammable afire, including the ceiling paint which caused a thick, noxious smoke that caused almost all the deaths.  Later, firefighters would describe descending down the stairwell as like climbing down into a volcano.

While this was taking place, trains continued to stop and discharge passengers onto the platform crowded with people fleeing the fire.

Eventually there were 30 crews of over 150 firefighters on the scene and the fire was officially declared out at 1:46 am, six hours later.  It left 31 people dead including the Senior Officer of the 1st-due company, Colin Townsley who died of smoke inhalation while trying to rescue a woman.

The London Fire Brigade has posted the report from the London Fire Journal HERE.

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