A Brief History of: The Horrific King's Cross Tube station Disaster 1987 (Short Documentary)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 июл 2024
- Holiday Season Deal! Go to nordvpn.com/plainlydifficult to get 73% off a two year plan plus one additional month free, only £2.34 per month.
#history #London #disaster
Learn while you're at home with Plainly Difficult!
The King's Cross tube station fire began at approximately 19:30 on 18 November 1987 at King's Cross St Pancras tube station, a major interchange on the London Underground.
The Horrific fire would result in 31 deaths and over 100 injured, the legacy would be far reaching as it would change UK fire legislation.
Want to become a channel member? / @plainlydifficult
Paypal Donate Link: www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
Help the Channel Grow Like, Comment & Subscribe!
Subscribe Here: ruclips.net/channel/UCb0M...
Equipment used in this video:
Rode NTG3, Audient ID4, MacBook Pro 16, Hitfilm, Garage Band
Check out My Twitter:
/ plainly_d
Check out these other great channels:
/ dominotitanic20
/ cynicalc. .
/ jabzyjoe
/ @qxir
**Holiday Season Deal! Go to **nordvpn.com/plainlydifficult** to get 73% off a two year plan plus one additional month free, only £2.34 per month**
if you like your privacy, do NOT buy notvpn.
Dude! not cool, hawking your sponsor in a charity stream opener, on another channel and network, you do not have a connection too.
Extremely poor taste, on your part.
I've already blasted another youtuber for having this same sponsor (and having one in the first place). WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? All you youtubers really hate your viewers to force this garbage on them. Plus you interrupt your content to spew said garbage!
@@sos_legio_primus9177 Don't bother. RUclipsrs that have sponsors don't give a damn about what they are doing, all they can see is 'the green' to use a term.
Not everyone who died was killed in the flashover. LFB Guv Colin Townsley was killed by smoke inhalation during the rescue effort.
The concept of wooden escalators is so foreign to me. I've only ever seen metal ones.
I'm 66 and can remember seeing a wooden escalator at some point during my childhood.
I remember visiting London in the early '80s and being quite surprised at how dated a lot of the Underground infrastructure was. Wooden escalators, decrepit ticket halls and trains that looked like something out of a black-and white movie.
Wooden treads should be the souvenir T-shirt of the underground instead of the Mind the Gap sign. What other machines do they make out of wood? Helicopters?
@@martinhaigh8345 I can remember trains from the 60s on the bakerloo line and I'm only in my early 30s
Macy’s in Manhattan still has one if you want
To check it out
My grandma left the station as word spread of the fire. She survived air raids in the second world War and knew how quickly and dangerously both fire and panic spread.
Smart woman.
I had tye pleasure to work in the east end with elderly people many of them like your grandmother, i had just come over from rural ireland and those people were lovely to me and great fun, very interesting as well, i feel privileged to have known them
Hope you learned from her
Stop liein bruh ahah jokes smart woman
I'm rather surprised people were still using a burning escalator.
Note to self: When coming across an area in a deep underground tunnel blocked by caution tape and smoke and flame clearly visible opposite the tape, DO NOT cross the tape and enter the confined area which is filling with smoke. Also, do not hang around the top end of an inclined tunnel with a smoldering grease fire in it, lest it suddenly turn into a giant flamethrower with me in its path.
You'd think that would be common sense but...
@@AirQuotes But obviously, it isn't!
Well now you’re just not living your life to the fullest then
@@TheTotallyRealXiJinping I like the cut of your jib.
To be fair, 400 fires in like, 30 years means about 1/month so everyone was probably really used to small fires on the escalators and didn't think it was that serious
Something my safety director on our construction jobs always told us stuck with me.
“Safety regulations are all written in blood.”
And it's beyond true 👍
That
That's what they say at the railroad. And it's true.
Lots of laws, rules, and regulations as well
I was told the same when I studied to become an electrician and then we all had to watch horrible electrical accidents or the aftermath and we had to point out how this could have been prevented. Saw someone getting electrocuted by high voltage and their brain basically got cooked and that made their skull pop open and parts of it fly away like the lid of a pressure cooker.
Stuff like that, definitely hit it home that those regulations were written in blood and there for a very good reason.
In 34 years, Ive literally never seen a wooden escalator. Fascinating fact that they were used so recently
I’m 45 and 11 years old when I remember seeing it on the news. Horrifying. Poor victims and the emergency services were truly heroic
There were loads of wooden escalators when I lived in London back in 97 to 01.
I shall miss them, they were part of the tube.
I doubt not having them would have prevented this, though, as it was the lack of maintenance letting the oil, grease and debris add up.
There are still wooden escalators in Sydney
@@MostlyPennyCat Yeah, there really wasn't all that much wood that burned.
Pittsburgh still has the "inclines", an operable outdoor railway the travels a steep hill. it still uses wooden gears.
400 Fires in a 32 year period. So these guys were averaging just over one fire a month and didn't think there might be a cause for concern...
Wouldn’t want to get too hasty. Besides, the Brits are well known for their understated emotional reactions 😉
Fire brigade PPE was changed in 1989
@@oscarosullivan4513 pp lol
@@charlesiiofengland3608 Personal protective equipment
Fireman Sam sure is busy
One of the victims of the Kings Cross fire remained unidentified until 2004, they were known as Body 115 until forensics confirmed it was 73 year old Alexander Fallon. They book Body 115: The Mystery of the Last Victim of the King's Cross Fire by Paul Chambers covers this story.
i always find that insane. like did he have no family at all that were missing him
"Mr Fallon had moved to London after the death of his wife in 1974. He was discounted as a possible match for Body 115 as his family estimated his height at 5’ 6”, whereas Body 115 was around 5’ 2”. He also didn’t fit the age profile, which the post mortem had fixed at between 40 and 60."
He had family, but the state of the remains didn't quite match his description so even though his family had given him up as missing, it didn't appear to be a match for the unidentified body.
@@chantalgroot4275 So the profile didn't match and the family agreed, but was there a point when that family remained the last one with their loved one unaccounted for while the police had one unidentified body? And is that why more work was done to identify the body?
@@youngminpark3173 It was. In 2004. 20+ years later, they still hadn't given up trying to figure it out.
DNA was still pretty new around then. Though they still could have shaved a few years off. but to say they weren't trying is disingenuous.
@@phil2782 I'm not sure how I gave the impression implying that they weren't trying. I was pretty tired when I wrote the question. Please don't read into it.
I was there, as a 14 year old. I can remember being told to leave via an exit by a very worried looking tube worker. I could smell smoke, but not see any at the time.
You’re over 50 and watching this channel! it’s funny how diverse his audience is!
@@user-hb5ud1fk5n they might be telling the truth O.O
@@user-hb5ud1fk5n Silver surfers more common
I remember watching the new London fire brigade video a few years ago and this fire was one of the reasons why they got rid of the wool and rubber kit
Glad that you survived and didn't actually see too much. Also, in response to the first reply: I'm 49.
I remember being amazed by those wide, steep wooden escalators, rushing down into the depths, when I visited London in the 1970s. It's odd, though not surprising, to learn that a fire led to their replacement.
I wonder if it would be feasible to coat them in some sort of clear resin to be able to keep the wood, but also keep it up to fire code
@@sarahamira5732 Or maybe just a non-flammable wrap, but I'm not sure anyone would hand to go on a escalator that even looked like it was made of wood.
@@ChrisD__ people today usually have a bit of complacency bais, they usually see something like, idk, a rollercoaster or a wooden escalator and think "that looks a little sus, but I'm sure it wouldn't be here if it wasnt safe". Generally, they turn out to be right, but certainly not always
@@sarahamira5732 The problem was the underneath of them, wood escalators had too much running parts to coat all of them with resin coat and not worn down every few weeks.
Wooden rollercoasters and escalators are apples and oranges
Oh man ty for the video, my grandfather died in the fire and it’s really interesting and sad to see how the whole thing went down and how it could have been prevented.
I wanted to hit the thumbs-up button as a way to acknowledge and show support for your family's loss all those years ago, but it felt weird giving a thumbs-up to "this is how my grandfather died" -- so instead I'll just say, my condolences.
My condolences friend. Bless your grandfather.
It could not have been prevented. Hindsight is *_ALWAYS_* 20/20. Disasters happen. I understand your loss, I do. But I also understand that disasters happen. It is part of being human, we have to make mistakes to learn from them.
@@danielduncan6806 I respectfully disagree that it couldn't have been prevented. They knew it was a recipe for disaster to not clean/maintain the steps properly & chose not to.
I stopped at the plaques today on my way home wished I could have left some flowers but it's not allowed , Rob Crowley
"Hey should we put in smoke detectors? We've had several hundred fires over the last 30 years"
"Nah, we'll be fine"
We love to see safety features ignored 😑
Yeah, that was pretty shitty. So was lighting a match & tossing it on the ground (the CAUSE of the fire!) b/c you're so self-centered & addicted to nicotine that you won't even be considerate enough to wait until you reach a receptacle for your LITTER. So is being CHILDISH, flaunting laws about smoking in confined areas. Everyone wants to put all the blame on the government or subway management, as if individuals bore no responsibility for what happened in this case. There HAS to be grease on the wheels in order for them to turn smoothly & not grind down or lock up. There doesn't HAVE to be cigarettes & matches dropping on the grease. Yes, all the paper & excess grease should have been cleaned from around the wheels regularly & people do drop tickets & other scraps of paper by accident, so that should have been removed by subway maintenance. But much of that litter is just people being careless & littering.
Countless forest fires & house fires have been started by smokers. The OBVIOUS takeaway that apparently everyone but me is afraid to say is: QUIT SMOKING!! It's a stupid, filthy, dangerous habit that kills people & animals, destroys property & beautiful forests, creates litter everywhere (discarded matches & cigarette butts, that also harm wildlife), & has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
@@DonnaBrooks Absolutely. That's one of the big reasons that my late, beloved Gramps quit smoking in the late 50's, just after he began his long career as a firefighter. He knew a fire hazard when he saw one!
The other was catching my mum (who was maybe 6 or 7) attempting to smoke one of his cigarettes, and choking up a lung. He was a surprisingly progressive parent for the times, and figured that apart from discussing why smoking was a bad idea with her, having coughed until she threw up was punishment enough for his kid.
@@DonnaBrooks Better ban farm tractors then cause they start alot too
@@DonnaBrooks Yes, but unfortunately, unless you plan on monitoring and fining every single person who goes through and drops something, it's not really possible to stop people from littering. It's bad enough that they clearly couldn't even stop people from smoking when that was outright illegal.
Holding someone responsible for causing the disaster is better, but even that's not necessarily possible without a *lot* of surveillance.
It ultimately does fall to the business to be responsible for maintenance of equipment and a safe environment, because it's not practical to make the general public be responsible for it. Someone has to pay for and maintain the fire alarm system, the sprinkling system, etc. And someone still has to maintain the escalators, which partly means keeping them clean and clear of potential fire hazards.
A single dropped match honestly shouldn't have been able to start such a massive blaze to begin with.
@@KezanzatheGreat A bit of cleaning would, no doubt, have been a good idea.
Just to reiterate how unknown the trench effect was, the flashover was so unexpected and sudden that some of those who died were trained firefighters. I have walked through the Kings Cross Station ticket hall and it still feels eerie to me. I remember when I entered it and recognised the shape... that gave me quite a chill. There is a plaque on the wall in memory of the victims.
The trained firefighters who ignored the fire while it was still very small. Shows how important it is to take ANY fire seriously, no matter how many times you have seen the exact same thing. If I recall from another documentary, the fire chief was one of those who died. The rest of them took communal charge and worked as a unit to put it out. Tough and sad way to learn a valuable lesson.
Another thing to note in the tunnels of train stations is when a train moves through a tunnel it creates a lot of airflow, and as stated in the video the Piccadilly line still had trains moving along and stopping at the station while the fire was reported which I would wager helped provide enough oxygen and fuel to aid the flaming jet.
I wouldn't be surprised if the flashover was a backdraught/backdraft triggered by the rush of air from a train arriving at the platform.
@@pseudotasuki Exactly what I was thinking
@@pseudotasuki possibly but they did this in a computer and a scale model too, and I don’t think the trains were factored into either though I could be wrong, I think the tunnel effect was it’s own thing but the air from the trains helped speed it up and add to its ferociousness
They did think of this and ran the calculations, the results showed that the airflow resulting from train movement was too weak to cause the flame to jet upwards as quickly and violently as it did
@@theshermantanker7043 I am likely basing my guess on modern Sydney trains and stations e.g platform 24-25 Central station Sydney I have seen those drafts lift a bin top and smack someone in the face faster than I could lift the bin top attempting the same thing (No faces were smacked during this experiment)
Another major factor talked about in the report was the fact that there was basically no coordinated emergency training or planning for London Underground station staff at the time. No evacuation plans, no fire drills, nothing. It's possible that had such planning and training been in effect, an evacuation would have been close to complete by the time the flashover occurred, greatly reducing the casualties.
Also, the Greenford escalator wasn't replaced for so long because it was above ground at a comparatively quiet station and thus considered low-risk. All wooden escalators below ground were replaced by the mid-1990s.
I was wondering about this. The fact that trains were still dropping passengers after the evacuation started seems particularly careless.
@@davidmoore1253 Yup. I noticed the same thing. How did nobody think of that?
A recent fire aboard an American military ship was aggrevated by lack of basic firefighting training and equipment.
Most changes only happen reactively, rather than proactively. Until such a disaster happens, many people just can't envisage how anything could go wrong. Add to that the expense of enacting major safety improvements and you can imagine how things either get ignored or take a long time to implement.
It took two plane crashes to figure out something was fundamentally wrong with the Boeing 737 MAX.
@@TomStorey96 You are so right about the MAX.
I wonder if the passenger who dropped the match ever realized it could have been their fault.
Knowing that my negligence had caused a disaster like that would haunt me forever.
Probably not, especially if they ignored the rules in the first place. Most people don't perform self-examination following their actions. Like someone who causes a traffic incident and drives merrily away, unaware of their actions
If I'd been lighting up around 19:20 on that escalator then saw the news later, I'd have been really really haunted. Maybe to the point of suicide...
Been wondering about that person. Would you even remember sparking up as usual as you got to the escalator? Would you suddenly remember and worry or feel a sweat break out before burying the idea deep in your mind? Would you suddenly stop smoking? Whatever they did, if they thought about it, they never came forward.
@@domfjbrown75 They would have just decided they were lucky they didn't get caught in the fire, and quite annoyed by the fact that there will be a minor change in their daily schedule.
Nah. He was a smoker, and they only care about themselves
This event was highly detailed during architecture school even as of 10 years ago, similar to the hyatt-regency disaster, this event spurred sweeping overhauls of antiquated fire codes. Our building codes can be measured in lives lost. It would be nice if this did not have to be the case.....
As a civil engineer, I deal with earthquake design codes a lot. Behind each improvement, better building detailing, snd stricter requirements, there are thousands of lives lost from earthquakes in Kobe, Sumatra, Loma Prieta, Northridge, and El-Centro.
Pipeline, rail, & aviation safety rules have also been written in blood.
I'm almost kind of flabbergasted the people blamed the staff of the station rather than their own inability to follow a smoking ban.
"I tossed the match into the escalator but how dare you not report the fire so quickly!"
Also people who blame the manufacturer, when the escalator itself was maintained very poorly
It was the late '80s. Selfish a'hole behaviour was the norm and I say that as a Brit who was 27 at the time of this incident :/
The smoking ban was after this fire.
@@RealDixonPeter no it was in 1985, did you watch the video
@@Sally4th_ I think people forget this whenever they blame a particular generation for "ruining" somthing. There have been arseholes of every generation!
In the western United States since the 1950s I have never seen wooden escalators. All the ones that I’ve seen were made of metal and were fitted in such a way that it would have been impossible to insert a match, much less any scrap of paper. Amazing that this disaster didn’t occur sooner. Well done video of a sorrowful occurrence.
A lot of the tube network was the same that had been installed in the 1920's. Old technology, Old materials, Old standards.
@@roythearcher That’s understandable. Good comment.
I didn't know wooden escalators even existed.
One would assume wood and electric machinery don't go well together.
A fire occuring sooner would have made it less dangerous. Kind of like a forest gets more dangerous when small fires don't do regular small "cleanings". Kings Crossing actually had far fewer fires that most stations had over the previous decades.
@N Fels While I agree that North American electrical and fire safety standards are not as good as most European ones. A circuit breaker would trip within thousandths of a second upon short circuit as a short would pull thousands of amps. Electrical Sockets are also all contained within a junction box that would contain any sparks or arks.
I was born in 1979 in southern Florida. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a wooden escalator, not that I can remember. The humidity alone where I was raised makes a wooden escalator pretty much an impossibility. All that expansion & contraction would be a nightmare to try to maintain.
the only multi story buildings in Florida are car lots and lawyers offices
@@imchris5000 don't forget condos and hotels
@@imchris5000 Sadly, there was that condo building that collapsed.
@@pseudotasuki and what was it made of? That's right!....concrete?
@@imchris5000 hospitals
While it seems obvious at first, I wonder if the fact that the steps were wooden did had any noticable effect on the scale of the fire.
After all, wood attached to metal takes quite some heat before being able to ignite, and by then everything should be too late already.
Grease together with paper, dust and other stuff that has accumulated for decades is basically the stuff firefighter horror stories are made of. Controlling the way air flows seems to be the biggest task besides keeping everything clean.
It's very likely that wood was a factor in the fire. I would like to also mention that etching via wood burning can cause a fire to start if one isn't careful. Etching via wood burning produces burns into wood with use of very hot metal nibs. There have been times where there was smoke that was produced while I was doing some wood burning on two of the wooden boxes I was etching into (these boxes were for two of our pets that sadly passed away due to health issues and severely diminished quality of life due to being very old, even for a chihuahua (16 years old) and American Shorthair calico (17 years old) respectively). A fire involving grease would very likely burn very hot, much hotter than the heat produced when etching via wood burning. en*wikipedia*org/wiki/Flame#Common_temperatures
I know Wikipedia is usually not a good source, however, it did at least have some tables at the ready that can be used as a starting point.
I would say the determining factor for controlling the fire was carefully choosing the appropriate method of not only just preventing spread, but also putting the fire out since grease (train/mechanical grease rather than cooking oils, but still very much grease regardless) was involved. Grease fires can't be put out with just water - water only makes grease fires worse.
Thankfully, they were able to eventually put a stop to that fire and prevent anymore deaths from occuring.
The insulation properties of the treads undoubtedly allowed the fire to grow considerably before becoming noticable.
@N Fels especially when large volumes of it have been pre-warmed to near ignition in a nice kiln-like flue.
The wood certainly burned and didn't help, but far more combustion came from the debris and grease.
the mountain of grease above the fire is what really made it intense as the fire down low the grease kept getting hotter turning to liquid some of it turning to vapor the rest pouring right into the fire like water
My dad worked on the wholesale renovation of the station afterwards, something only completed relatively recently. The difference it has made is nothing short of fantastic -- I remember travelling through it on my way home from uni once and, twenty years later last summer to go to my friend's wedding in Letchworth. The first journey was like being flushed down a toilet. The second was like the old Orient Express.
Kudos to everyone who turned KX from a sewer into a silver platter. It is so much nicer travelling in London now, and it's a huge shame it's built on the backs of the people who suffered in this horrendous tragedy.
Yes, KXSP is a brilliant station!
When you WANT a match to stay lit, it goes out. When you DON'T want it to stay lit, it lights a whole escalator on fire.
And no one will ever let you forget it.....
The Bradford City FC fire in May 1985 was very similar. Lighted match, wooden stand, accumulated debris That killed c56. No lessons learned implemented before King's Cross. Great video.
Tombstone accounting. If it's too expensive or not popular enough to generate additional income, changes won't be made until the death toll becomes high enough.
The speed of that goes spread was bloody scary. That and the burned out British Airtours 737 at Manchester were two things this then 10 year old never forgot seeing. Ditto KX a couple of years later... All of us in Boys House in the blind school we were at were glued to the news that night...
I remember visiting London mid/late 80's. The wooden escalators, though very pretty to look at, struck me as a fire risk.
Thank you for shedding some light onto the matter. Especially the trench effect is very interesting.
I went on one about 20 years ago, from this vid I'm guessing it was one of the last that were in use. It felt different as I got on it & I quickly noticed the wooden steps. Immediately thought of the King's Cross fire & how rickety the old escalator was compared to more modern ones.
I've always preferred the ride on the older wooden escalators. They felt nicer underfoot, and tended to be very fast (ones at Knightsbridge in Spring 1989 instantly spring to mind, as they'd not had any modifications at that point...
Casual/self-centered behavior on the part of departing passengers seems insane, but it's well documented elsewhere. People can be completely oblivious idiots.
It's probably a dynamic similar to what causes "crowd crushes". In a flowing crowd of sufficient speed or density, people can't easily see what's beyond the folks in front of them, and by the time they reach a problem point and can finally see it, it's too late to turn back or reroute because of the moving mass of people behind. It can basically force you to take the forward path, even if there's an obstacle or someone fallen to the ground.
@@ddichny perhaps.
But "stepping over safety tape" doesn't seem consistent with that. That sounds more more like the kind of self-centered narcissistic behavior I see so often at work, where customers frequently ignore safety barriers during heavy equipment lifts of major loads of lumber and other heavy construction materials. (Seriously, what kind of pinhead plays chicken with a fork truck carrying concrete?)
It's because most humans are barely sentient pond scum, sadly...
I'm reminded of the Kaprun ascending train disaster and how the chimney effect exacerbated the fire. Anyone on the train who tried to evacuate upslope from the fire died from the smoke, as well as three people at the Alpine Centre located at the top of the tunnel.
My father travelled home through King's Cross about half an hour before the fire was discovered. He was there the following day as part of LFB's clean up and was seen talking to Mrs Thatcher.
I travelled through King's Cross as the fire was going on - which I did every weekday at that time - the platform was full of smoke, the doors opened a couple of inches then slammed shut as a staff member ran along the platform, one arm over his mouth, waving us away with his hat in the other hand, close escape for me!
My brother was home in Plymouth with flu that week. He'd have been going through around the time of the flashover. Luckiest flu I can think of!
I wouldn't admit to having talked to Thatcher if I'd been caught on video. But it's good your father survived.
@@davelordy Oh wow. That _is_ lucky. Good thing the driver got the train closed up _pronto,_ hate to imagine how bad it would've been if folks had just gotten off on autopilot - or sheer stubborn-mindedness.
The smoking ban on the underground was put in place after a fire at Oxford Circus underground station in 1984. Thankfully that wasn’t a huge fire even though it had the potential to be.
I have seen two fires in buildings and all I say is it’s shocking how fast they spread. If you think a fire is going on in a building you are in just get out ASAP.
Reminds me of how the Browns Ferry near nuclear meltdown started with just a candle.
Its on my list!
Jaslevské Bohunice A1 was killed by few grams of sillicagel, from ripped sack,.. shit happends,...
I experience the buildup of dangerous flammable greasy material on my forklift at work, it's weird, the dust covers the old grease, picks up more dust and random bits of fibre and ends up coating the underside with a weird, extremely flammable mix of grease dust and debris
I hope you clean it off regularly. :(
I witnessed a lot of this when I was working the midnight maintenance crew in a steel foundry. There was grease everywhere, and everything got stuck to it, then more grease would stick to *that,* and it was our job to clean those messes up. Being the smallest person on the crew - the only woman, and a small one at that! - I ended up the small spaces expert by default, and ran into some hair-raising fire hazards on that job. The worst was definitely the oil spill directly under a blast furnace that was shut down, but still hot. What did they give us to soak it up? SAWDUST. And I was the one who got to deal with that clusterfuck, because I was the only one who fit down there. I never told my Gramps, who was a retired firefighter, about that one because I didn't want to give him a stroke.
Oh I clean it religiously haha, I also thankfully have an electric forklift so as long as I'm keeping everything clear of the main drive motor it's safe from possible ignition sources
@@neuralmute God that sounds terrifying, I've also experienced some pretty nasty kitchen grease buildups, and a similar story here, I was the smallest guy in the kitchen so I would go over and under and all around the countertops that couldn't move, but never anything in an environment like that. Thankfully I just deliver to steel foundries now but still have to deal with the forklift at my place occasionally now
@@neuralmute i grease trucks, this is partially why I wipe the excessive grease off (especially on the driveshafts since it'll get flung onto the hot exhaust and smoke)
I remember this well as I used to use this station daily on my route to school and worked very close to the station when it burned. This disaster could have happened at almost any station on the tube network at that time due to the state of maintainance, but it had to happen here at the busiest place on the network!.
The busiest place & one of the biggest escalators, natch.
It’s a sad truth. Busiest = most people, but also the most matches, paper, escalators, etc. So, one of the worst places was also one of the most likely places.
_"daily on my route to school and worked very close to the station when it burned"_
Same here, went to college in Cockfosters (Middlesex), and worked in Farringdon in the evenings, so changed at King's Cross every weekday on my way to work from college, used those very escalators, when our tube pulled into the platform it was full of thick smoke, you could just about see the posters on the wall from the tube, the doors opened an inch or two then slammed shut as a staff member from King's Cross ran down the platform, one arm over his mouth, waving us away with his hat in the other hand . . . one thing I remember was that even other (close-by) tube stations were smokey - presumably from smoke travelling down the tunnels, pushed along by the trains.
The one day in my life when I was thankful to be on a train that was late! Arrived at Kings Cross from Peterborough on an overground train, and as I was about to descent from the mainline concourse into the Underground, I saw a few wisps of smoke coming up. I turned and got out quick - and then watched, stunned as the horror unfolded before me. Went home not knowing quite how deadly the incident had turned out.
I had fist heard of this horrid tragedy on the show “Forensic Files” and think of it every time i get on an elevator or escalator and smell grease or hydraulic oil. Glad you are covering this for younger generations.
I remember that episode too
I'm old enough to remember watching the news and reading the newspapers
The "trench effect" is a weird name for a self-feeding chimney. The fire exhaust rises and sucks fresh air from the tunnel to feed the flames. This is a rudimentary blast furnace.
The "trench effect" refers to the unintuitive behaviour of the fire remaining low (and thus hidden inside the escalator equipment) as it spread up the angled tunnel, not the chimney effect.
It is caused by a combination of the Coanda effect + flashover. The Coanda effect causes a rapid moving fluidstream to follow a nearby surface. It works by the surrounding fluid having a higher pressure then the moving one and thus forcing the moving fluid down towards the surface. It can be demonstrated with the classic experiment of balancing a ping pong ball in an airstream. (This is also what makes airplane wings work by forcing the airstream to follow their curve. When this flow is disturbed the plane stalls). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coand%C4%83_effect
Come back kevin lmao
I used to go to this station every day. I walked past the memorial plaque so many times but never thought to look into what happened. Very interesting video.
It reminds me of the Kaprun disaster. It was a train catching fire in a tunnel. The ones that survived were those that didn't hesitate and smashed the windows and ran through the fire rather than away from it! (The tunnel had a steep incline and thus, acted as a chimney).
PS: I learned about the Kings cross accident during my English classes in school.
If it had happened today, more people would have died. The 31 unlucky souls caught in the flashover and about 100 rubber-necking plonkers trying to record it on their cell phones…
You know how bad it was when you get two high numbers on the scales.
Double horror
I remember seeing that fire on TV. A few months later, the escalators in the Dillards department store in Hurst, Texas, were closed and the steps removed. The escalators were modified to the new fire codes and put back in service.
Im old enough to remember ash trays in every store, barbershop, movie theater and even some doctor offices. I'm only 37 so it goes to show just how recent this practice existed. Considering the majority of fires occur from lit cigarettes in the US it's amazing it took until the late 90s for laws to suspend smoking inside most public accessable buildings. Bars I get. People are usually right there by them. But the idea of having an unattended smoldering cigarette in an ashtray tucked away in a dark hallway of a shopping mall next to a store full of very flammable fabric still amazes me.
When I was a graduate nurse in 1979, ALL my fellow nurses and doctors smoked. The walls and light fixtures were caked with yellow tobacco tar in the report room. As a nurse I routinely had to douse fires in garbage cans and patients' paper trash bags, as smoking in patient rooms was allowed till 1985 in the USA.
In primary school we made ashtrays in art class!
@@DemstarAus Good comment! And chewing gum cigarettes!
I'm old enough to remember all the ashtrays. And the cloud of smoke permanently hanging below the yellowed ceiling tiles. Fun times!
Certainly remember smoking in pubs. They'd have smoking areas and non-smoking areas. The non-smoking areas were always filled with smoke and they stank
I remember in the early 90s as a child in London there always seeming to be at least one "out of service for maintainance" escalator at each tube station I went through- usually where the one still in use was wooden. The rollout of metal escalators took *years* after this fire, though I never heard of the King's Cross fire until I was an adult.
I watched a great documentary on this fire last year. It found evidence of several other fires that had started but fizzled out on the escalator tracks over the years. Also, the grease itself wouldn’t burn from a match dropped on it but it was heavily contaminated with rodent hair and litter, which made it much more flammable.
My mum took a different train on this one day and it saved her life, crazy world we live in
Did anyone ever admit or get caught for dropping the match? If not, there must be at least one person who worked out from the timing that it might have been them, that they threw away a match then an hour later it's on the news and people dead. Imagine having to live with that and not being able to tell anyone.
Based on my experience on the trains today. Folk throw wrappers or cans and crap onto the tracks. Its sometimes kids who think littering is cool, but its just as often careless adults from young adults all the way up the grey seniors. People are just shits. The staff doesn't really pay much attention
Given how many people smoked then and how relatively common it would have been for someone to light a cigarette, it would have been likely impossible for any one person to know that they’d done something to contribute to the fire.
I doubt anyone knows that they did it for sure, but I reckon there's at least a couple of people who wondered if it was them.
Given the large and unknown time of smoldering and development, I don't think anyone could know or guess that they personally dropped the match, or who did.
Then too, being a smoker, I know that the act of lighting up and dropping a match becomes so routine and unmenorable that I doubt many people would even recall doing it.
The crazy thing is I still see people on trains and tubes smoking. Most of them seem like kids or teenagers. I've been tempted to ask them to put it out but then again I don't want to get stabbed.
yea it’s wild how people can be so stupid. i’ve also seen people vaping, which isn’t really a fire hazard but still super inconsiderate lol
nice one PD. glad you have covered this one - was a landmark event for the Underground and public fire safety as a whole. I was only 9 at the time but remember it very well - my Nan's mother lived in London and my brother and I often went with her by train & Tube for a visit, and would change at KX on the way. really stuck in my mind as a nipper. hope you and yours are well, I wish you a safe & happy Xmas; thank you for all your hard work, it's very much appreciated.
I tried looking up when fire alarm systems in public buildings in the US and the information is a bit confusing (lots of private buildings, rental units, and smoke alarms), but I believe they became standard in the US sometimes between the 1950s and the 1970s. Fire safety is one of those odd areas where the US has been generally ahead of the UK and I'm honestly not entirely sure why that's the case.
Ofc, all of our fire safety laws were paid for in blood. Every single one has an event where ppl died that pushed the public into demanding our government act. It's that way with all of our safety laws really, but fire safety is one of those things that really got the US public more vocal faster than most other types of disasters and safety issues.
I still find it hard to believe that the US's fire safety laws are more strict than the UK's - even after Grenfell. Usually y'all are way ahead of us on most things, but somehow not fire safety and it just baffles me that y'all don't seem to take it as seriously as you do other things.
TIL a Brit calls kings cross “KX” and that’s pretty cool
Three weeks before the King's Cross fire, there was a strange smell at Green Park Station, which I and a load of the passengers complained about. Some years later London Transport admitted that it was a small fire on one of the escalators. I and those other passengers and the station staff, had a lucky miss. Some years later, after the King's Cross fire, I was at Oxford Circus, where new metal escalators had to be shut down, because they were arcing. The smell of the King's Cross fire could be smelt on the Metropolitan line platforms for several years. The ban on smoking was put in after a previous fire at Oxford Circus, on one of the platforms there.
I've still not understood why a fire extinguisher wasn't used when the fire was still small.
you would have to fill in a form and face disciplinary action on why you used a fire extinguisher. best to clock off and ignore it.
@@ritecomment2098 'elf and safety. 🤦
@@ritecomment2098 British H&S at its best. Nowadays it's even worst.
Perhaps one was but it wasn't reported, or not mentioned here? In any case, I'm not sure how effective a fire extinguisher would be on a fire that was primarily in a space under the treads, you wouldn't be able to get the extinguisher discharge directly onto the heart of the fire.
The video does say that when the fire was recreated, by the time the flame became visible above the steps it was almost out of control and very difficult to extinguish, even with all the precautions a fire test would have. The fennel report mentions someone getting a fire extinguisher nine minutes after the fire was first reported but being unable to get close enough to the fire. That person also has access to the controls for a water fog system but was apparently tunnel-visioned on using the fire extinguisher and keeping people away from the fire and didn't activate the water fog.
I'm usually a big fan of your videos, but I feel you've missed a number of key facts about this fire. It was when only when the LFB arrived (before the flashover) that the evacuation of the ticket hall was ordered. One of the fatalities was a fire fighter. It's also worth noting that the cause of the fire was similar to the Bradford City fire 2 years previously. Also, the smoking ban on the tube was observed on the trains, but smoking on the way out of the station was less regulated. It was likely not a lit match, but a smoldering one which, in comination with years of rubbish under the escalator, allowed a fire to smolder and burn and build up heat for a while before it broke through the steps. And then, yeah, that's where the trench effect came into force. I remember this fire so very clearly, I was only 7 but my Dad was a firefighter at the time and it was the first time I really realised that maybe my Dad might die doing his job.
I realise this is a bit late, but that was a really interesting comment that gives good context. Thanks.
It sucks that the person who accidentally, yet recklessly caused this entire thing was never identified.
In thirty years we moved on from wooden escalators to cladding tall buildings in flammable materials.
I've been through King's Cross more than once and yet I had no idea about this disaster. What a horrible disaster!
I can’t believe that this type of escalator was still in use until 2014.
Well, if you clean it regularly, it is probably fine
There was nothing wrong with the escalator, the problem was poor maintenance (cleaning) and lack of fire suppression systems. It would have been a minor thing to have a fire suppression system set up to flood the escalator housing with CO2 in case of fire, and with an average of an escalator fire every single month for 32 years the hazard was well known.
The escalator would work fine if it was cleaned and maintained properly.
@@PneumatinisPlaktukas15 thats the issue you have to assume it won't be
@N Fels -- What traffic is in the housing of the escalator? It's not a closed system but it's certainly enclosed, and the amount it would take to suffocate a fire isn't going to suffocate people in an area the size of a train station.
As a 24 years old, smoking in a subway system baffles me... Other times, other habits. And I myself smoke
People used to smoke in restaurants, theatres, airplanes, taxis, elevators. I think maybe museums prohibited it to protect their collections. I remember the smoking light going on and off during airline flights.
I was 10 years old when this happened, and I can remember the news coverage. I didn't know that the one wasn't replaced until 2014. That is rather amazing.
I have been obsessed with the kings cross station fire ever since I saw the Seconds from Disaster episode and learned about the trench effect from it. It is a very morbid curiosity, but I tend to love events that are started innocuously.
The type of escalator at Greenford (the last one) was different to the Kings Cross ones.
The Kings Cross escalators had a wooden exterior and wooden treads (as did most of the "wooden" escalators of that time).
The Greenford escalator had a metal exterior and wooden treads. It had been the last one for at least 15 years and it was also considered low risk as it led up to open-air platforms.
All new escalators since (I think) the 1960s have had a metal exterior and metal treads.
Wow! What a tragedy! I'm glad to be able to learn more about it.
As many others have said living in the US in my 40+ years I have never seen a wooden escalator, always metal ones. I also live in an area where for decades Kone had a large manufacturing facility and now has a regional branch office for sales & operations and a large lot located near the regional airport for escalator & elevator storage so I have seen a LOT of escalators in my time.
I remember riding one of the wooden escalators back in 1986 (as a tourist) and thought "Wow, this is historical!" and then "Hmm this is made of wood" but it looked so polished from use and age I figured it was really sturdy. It's horrifying to hear eyewitnesses and survivors talk about how the smoke was choking people and there was no light to make your way from the ticket hall out to the street. This is pretty high up on the "ways I don't want to die" scale. I'm almost glad most of the people who died did so near-instantly. I really hope it's true; that it was over so fast they didn't know what happened. I know the radiation ones are next-level horrifying, but this hit me harder.
A very minor, picky thing. You said THE guy with the match “flaunted” the ban on cigarettes/smoking and that many other people “flaunted” the law. I suggest the word “flout” might be a better choice in this case. “Flaunt” is usually used to describe something that is to or extraordinarily showy. “Flout,” on the other hand usually has to do with actively ignoring a law or rule. There’s some connection and crossover between the two words, but each is used specifically.
Four others already posted this.
My now Ex partner was one of the people they hired to deep clean the wooden esculators after the fire before they replaced them, the colour of himself and his clothes after a night stripping one down is indescribable despite them wearing coveralls, and the smell was something else. While they did this his team had to put out several small fires :(
I cant say I slept well those nights as they were essentially locked in down there every night.
"now it's time to talk about Nord VPN"
me *aggressively attacks the right side of my phone*
even in nyc, there are still places with wooden escalators and i thought they were kinda scary before knowing this. they run slow and jittery, have large spaces for kids' toes/shoelaces/matches to get in between the cleats, and feel fragile. having learned of this incident, i feel vindicated for feeling uncomfortable at using these outdated escalators.
i lived next to kings cross for several months during my time studying abroad in london. i used the station almost daily, to the point where i came to know it pretty well. i remember seeing a sign about the fire but it never occurred to me how tragic it had actually been. insane to look back with that hindsight.
This, along with Bradford City stadium, Summerland and more recently Grenfell Tower are probably the fires from recent decades which have had/ will have the greatest effect on regulations.
when you have to slip the ad in the middle in the hopes of tricking the few people who do not pay full attention into listening.
Yeah it's slimy as fuck, and only detracts from the video content.
My Guy, you are given Free content.
@@Saya_SaW it's not free when they decide to waste my time with shit i don't need.
@@Saya_SaW Pay for premium to avoid adverts, so the slimy fucks start putting ads inside the vids themselves. Double dipping due to greed. Ruins paid content just as much as the free. gtfo.
@@Saya_SaW I have prenium
I miss the wooden escalators. They felt more comfortable under foot. (I used those at King's Cross before and after the fire.) I wonder if we would still have them if they had been properly maintained?
They would've probably been replaced in the 2000s as all good British equipment (such as most Express and Bennie lifts...)
I felt the same about them. They smelled nice as well, and the handrails seemed more rough so had better grip...
The cost of maintaining them properly would have seen them replaced by something easier & cheaper to maintain at least a decade earlier than they were.. If not 2 decades.
To be honest they were extremely old by the late 1980's. I wouldn't be surprised if nearly all of the wooden escalators on the LU back then dated from pre WW2. Some of them may have even dated from the Edwardian period. All of the wooden escalators should have been replaced in the 50's and 60's.
I don't know what the lifespan of an escalator is, but those old wooden escalators were probably designed to last no more than 50 years - so would have approached 'end of lifespan 'span by the 1960's.
That's when the whole lot should have gone....but LU had little money for many decades after WW2, which explains why these wooden escalators were kept for so long. I bet the LU management knew they were a safety risk years before the Kings X disaster of 1987.
But as with most things, it takes a real tragedy and loss of life to bring about change and make the money available for new escalators, overhaul safety regulations. It shouldn't take a tragedy to make things happen, but somehow it does time and again......from Zeebrugge to Hillsborough, and Clapham to Grenfell.
I had a quiet moment today in front of the plaques , on my way back home from Christmas , god bless those involved . There is nowhere to put flowers near the plaques as being in a tunnel above kind regards to anyone involved , Rob Crowley
The fact there was no fire suppression system in place in an underground confined area is unfathomable....better to have ruined equipment and a giant mess than ruined lives with no recourse.
i remember wooden escalaters in philly and new york- not often but here and there, including in the access to our subway. they became less and less common until the 80s when they were... extremely rare.
in the very late 80s or early 90s every single one vanished. i assume now because of the Kings Cross incident
I like how you do that little box in the top right to indecate an advert like back in the old days of CRT tvs
ITV springs to mind!
You should do an episode about the Bradford City football stadium fire, which has some commonality of causes with the Kings Cross fire (lack of maintenance allowing flammable rubbish to accumulate).
I have no doubt the person who threw down the match remembered they had done it I've always been amazed at how people would light their cigarette and just throw down a match without blowing it out. Glad lighters have taken over.
I thought that as well.
If they're still alive (which is a question considering they were quite certainly a smoker), then the thought must surely be tormenting them often.
There may even be several people who suspect they are the "culprits" of the fire - and don't know how to deal with it.
Would I come forward were I "guilty"??? I very much doubt it.
I'd be wearing a target on my back for the rest of my life.
The mont blanc tunnel fire was the craziest margarine fire.
I keep feeling the phrase "I can't believe it's not butter" comes into play here somewhere.....
I never knew margarine was so flammable before this one!
My Grandad passed through the exact escalator the fire broke out on just half an hour before. I'm so lucky to still have him.
Thankfully he passed through instead of passing on.
@@LexipMedia Yes. Indeed
Would like to see a vid on the Kim Kim River incident.
Thanks for the suggestion
Flaunting laws is what a prosecutor does. I think you might have meant flouting them.
Brilliant production as always though, and a solemn reminder that "safety regulations are written in blood" as they say.
I could very well be wrong here, but in my memory, while smoking was banned on the trains themselves in 1985 (I remember smoking a cigarette on a tube just before that happened), but smoking in LU stations was still legal up until the King's X fire....
My dad was there about 1 hour before the fire started. He was coming from Victoria Station To Kings Cross to go to Newcastle. He was very lucky to be there an hour before and not when it happened.
It is one thing to ignore the rules.
It is entirely something else when you ignore common sense.
Great work and a very well done video!! Thank you and can't wait for the next vid!
Thank you!
Insane how the varnish on the woodwork helped the flash over.
Didn't help they wouldn't maintain the thing
Anyone who has seen An American Werewolf in London, grew up thinking those triple escalators and ticket halls were already creepy. I lived in London for three years, and couldn't pass through any of the older sections without thinking about some of the amazing cinematography that features. Though it's at the length of the escalator, I think it's the first time you see the werewolf in the film. All escalators in the London Underground are still scary to this day. Dare you stop and stand in the middle of a step, you'll see what I mean. Progress in safety will always come at a cost to lives.
Although those escalators were metal by then...
I think that the mass amount of grease getting boiled by the heat of the fire down low was filling the air with vapors ahead of the fire it was just a matter of time before the air fuel ratio got to the golden zone and the grease vapor ignited like a flame thrower
thanks for using METRIC MEASUREMENTS in subtitles. In the 22nd century, it is most appreciated by modern people
Another thing they could do to improve safety after the disaster is post police officers at random times outside the entrance. And anytime someone would come out with a pre-lit cigarette give them a ticket. That way people wouldn't be tempted to pre-light the cigarettes not knowing if they would get busted or not.
I worked for over 30 years for the Underground, this fire and the Bradford City fire were a huge part of our fire training and safety awareness that the little bit of smoke or flame you can see can get out of hand very very quickly. As for the people who pushed past staff and onto the escalator, until you work with the public you have no idea how stupid and arrogant some of them can be. I personally on numerous occasions have had to get police to remove people from the station during an emergency.
I had a fellow soldier tell me when drunk that he started this fire.he told me in 1995.never knew whether to believe or not.although he did tell me something else at the same time which was true.
If he'd been there from around 19:20, used #4 and dropped a match, then it's highly probable...
I LOVE your diagrams for the mechanics, etc and all in your vids. It really brings it all together in your mind, makes it real. I LOVE history and you make it fun!! And memorable!!
Good Vid But you missed some points that the fennel report highlighted or recommended.
*no gates to be locked ever…like the Thames Link boswick gate was at the back end of the Piccadilly Concourse.
*trains to come in at 5mph during evacuations if at all. The trains were coming in at normal line speed. This turned the escalators in to a blast Furness with the rush of air.
*mandatory drug tests….”flying Scotsman” was a fave watering hole for managers and supervisors. 🤔 don’t ask how I know these things admittedly 2nd hand but it was the bad old days.
Living through the 70s and 80s must have been terrifying: multiple train accidents, terrorist (IRA and others), the coldwar, fires, economic troubles, war, AIDS and nuclear disasters.
I'm thankful I grew up in the 90s 😅
Just like today...
I grew up in Alaska in the late 70’s early 80’s. I survived. It was easy. I didn’t have a choice and didn’t know any better. The problem with these youngsters is they never had to struggle and they have all this negative information in the palm of their hands, all they know is doom and gloom. But guess what. Things were just as bad back in the day. We just didn’t have instant info the second it happened. And it wasn’t being forced down our throats. You herd about it the next day or week in the paper.
Oh wait until he gets to the 90’s
@@tanderson6442 You say "Youngsters have never had to struggle" but immediately afterwards you say that things have always been this bad. Are those two not antithetical to eachother? Disregarding the ignorance of claiming an entire generalized group of people have never faced hardship before. I mean, it's not like hundreds of student have witnessed their classmates die in school shootings or anything, or like 1 in 10 children will be sexually assaulted before eighteen. Or how many more will be physically and emotionally abused as well. Or how many young people are stuck basically raising their siblings on their own because there parents are to lazy or hopped up on drugs to bother. Hmm... It's almost like all groups of people suffer? Who woulda thought
@@sarahamira5732 well there’s that doom and gloom I was talking about. Have you ever had to go without a necessity in your life? Just curious. Have you had any hardships growing up, like real ones?and yes everything you just mentioned happened, it just wasn’t magnified and politicized like it is today. And as for generalizing a entire generation there are a few good kids out there but being someone who owns a business I can tell you first hand a lot of them ain’t worth a shit.
Imagine looking at the news and knowing you threw a lit cigarette butt, never knowing if this casual gesture cost so many lives
frankly, one of the best parts of your videos is the use of the foam finger and kid's numbers to rate the disaster. LOL
Tunnel/confined spaces fires are my favorite.
You'd probably think differently if you were in one!
@@smorris12 to be fair you could say that about most if not all fires lol
Comedy teamkill
Do you by any chance like crematories?
And I thought that the tube is hot today. It's definitely more humid though.
Also:
Obligatory first
I heard about the fire (as a teen) on the news in Germany when it happened. When I went to London in 1997 and saw those wooden escalators, I had to think about it again and was surprised these were still around.
Yet, for some reason, there are plenty of idiots out there who routinely ignore no smoking signs in subsurface stations 😡😡😡
Stupidity pays no attention to history 😞
A good, informative video. Just one mistake, made twice, that I noticed. At 01:38 and 12:12, smokers didn't "flaunt" the rule against smoking: they flouted it.
It's an acceptable usage of flaunt, though.
@@jerrylobster1149 no, it isn't, they mean completely different things.
@@jerrylobster1149 It is a common misuse of the word, but that does not mean it makes sense. To "flaunt" is to
--> "display (something) ostentatiously, especially in order to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance"
While they were breaking the law, I think it unlikely they were waving their lit cigarettes around ostentatiously to openly advertise their defiance. So the word with the meaning that fits is "flout":
--> openly disregard (a rule, law or convention).
This stuff gets called "proper" English but really it's accurate English -- picking the word that accurately describes the action. And no, I don't get angry over word usage, just glad to help out.