Flixborough - 50 years on

[Matt]

Today at 1653 marks 50 years since the Flixborough/Nypro disaster and I think its something we should remember and not forget at time goes on.

I'm sure many will know of the events or covered it somewhere at some point in lectures etc but for those who haven't probably worth a read up.

Flixborough shaped much of the modern day health and safety that we take for granted these days, at the time many UK Brigades were just two months old and that was no exception in Humberside, the Humber Bridge and the local motorway network didn't exist either, Flixborough is out the way if the motorway wasn't there, lots of winding little roads along the River Trent, today the journey from Hull would be 20 something miles, back then it would have been well over 55 miles an a different of 20 minutes v 1 hour 15 just to give you a scale of things as you would have to go right around to Goole and Doncaster effectively.

I look back at the log for this and within 9 minutes the it had become MP20 and 12 minutes later a MP25, 8 of those were from West Yorkshire, today I wonder what that would be?  At the time there was nearly a second incident at the steelworks in Scunthorpe due to the water main been cracked which gained its own attendance to prevent an explosion there, 2 large incidents in close proximity some areas would fall over at that now.

It was something close to our family at the time so something I've grown up knowing about and in the last year have been involved with various things regarding it, a friend who was on duty at the time wrote the book "I was there" which is some 360+ pages which I have proof read and worth a copy for anyone interested.  Around here in the Humber there is a lot of industry which could do the same if the worst really happened so its always in the back of your mind when you get the odd pop and bang from the local sites or one of the flares stacks going particularly well lighting up the night sky for miles, always in the back of your mind what could happen living in close proximity to the industry, around the country those who live near some similar sites may not think the same but it does make you think if things have happened before and you are more aware of it.

Today we are better preperared but no matter what training and things are in place when it happens it happens and you cannot predict it, lessons were learnt from Flixborough but it doesn't mean it cannot happen again, hopefully not with the results of 1974.  

I just wanted to put something together, we have come along way from that, some of you may remember the event at the time.  The Fire Service has changed massively since then and at the time was undergoing change that made it to where things for many are today.

28 people lost their lives in what could have been a far higher if it had been a week day, l personally know 2 familes who lost family on that day, my Grandparents worked on the site at the time and were involved in the aftermath in various roles but that could have been a different story.

As you sit down today just take a moment, weather you are getting tea ready or watching the football ike many were on the Saturday (the same as today) 50 years ago where could things have been today, what else could have happened it if wasn't for Flixborough?

[Messyshaw]

I remember the 'News flash' (before Breaking News was invented) on the ITV. Nobody had heard of Flixborough, in the same way, hardly anyone had heard of Grenfell. How that changed in the weeks and months that followed 

I recall reading how pumps drove past injured people outside Scunthorpe - miles away from the blast. 

A dreadful disaster 

[Matt]

Yes the crews mobile from Scunthorpe requested ambulances for those injured along the High Street as they were mobile due to injuries from the glass been blown into the street and onto everyone.

Back then Flixborough was quite remote, Scunthorpe town has now expanded and they might as well be joined, the industrial estate where the factory once was is an odd place now having worked up there, has a power station, a paint chemical place (COMAH site) and the wharf where metal is handled I think.  It's a very odd place, unsure what the place would have been today had Flixborough not happened.