WHEN the Cheapside Street fire was at its worst, flames leapt 200 feet up into the Glasgow sky.
Showers of sparks blew across the Clyde to fall in Govan.
The Evening Times of March 29, 61 years ago almost to the day, reported: “The heat of the roaring, twisting flames broke windows within a wide radius and an electricity standard in Warroch Street wilted and sagged into a grotesque attitude.”
The Cheapside Street fire shocked everyone across the city and beyond. It remains the British fire service’s biggest peacetime loss of life.
Cheapside Street warehouse fire, March 1960. Pic: Herald and Times
Nineteen men died tackling the blaze, which raged through the Arbuckle, Smith and Company whisky bond on the evening of March 29, 1960.
Fourteen firefighters and five members of the Salvage Corps were killed, when an explosion inside the building caused its 60-foot high walls to crash down into Cheapside Street and Warroch Street below.
The Evening Times reported the next morning: “The Glasgow whisky bond fire was still smoking and smouldering today. And from time to time, a tongue of flame leapt up from the wreckage to remind the watchers at the barricades of last night’s horror in which 19 firemen died.”
The Lord Provost, Sir Myer Galpern announced he was opening a disaster fund to help the families of those who lost their lives.
Our reporter said: “He said to-day he had watched the fire last night and now it was his desire, and that of the Lady Provost, to express on behalf of the corporation and the citizens of Glasgow the deep sympathy that was felt for those who had lost their lives.
“He also expressed admiration for the courage of the firefighters and the Salvage Corps men who were on duty and thanks to those from outside areas who gave such valuable help.”
The Evening Times described the events as “a night of horror almost without parallel in Glasgow’s history.”
Some of the shocked firemen at the scene. Pic: Herald and Times
It added: “The sun rose in a clear sky today to reveal the full scale of the devastation. People lined wooden barriers to watch the preparations being made to demolish the 100ft wall in Warroch Street which has been a constant threat to the fireman.
“And, their faces blackened with smoke and streaked with sweat, groups of firemen, some of the 300 who fought the blaze, waited for news of their mates.”
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Our leader writer summed up the shock felt by people all over the country.
“Glasgow stands appalled at the disaster which has struck the men of her fire brigade and salvage corps,” said the article. “Theirs is a job which is always difficult and often dangerous but never before has tragedy struck so heavily at their ranks in times of peace. The sympathy of the entire city goes out to the families of the dead.”
In nearby Holm Street, one family endured a night of terror when their daughters – five-year-old Louisa Park and her four-year-old sister Betty – went missing.
The two girls had been playing outside their tenement home, close to the site of the fire, but had not returned home for dinner.
Funerals for the firemen killed attracted huge crowds of mourners keen to pay their respects. Pic: Herald and Times
The Evening Times reported: “Parents and relatives searched for two little girls during the height of the blaze – unaware that the children were in a nearby factory in which they had been locked all night. According to Louisa, she and her sister had gone into the factory in nearby Cadogan Street and evidently had not been noticed by the workmen. When they discovered they could not get out they decided to make the best of things.
“The children’s father, 27-year-old Arthur Park, who with his wife had been out all night searching for the girls is today trying to piece together the story of their escapade. He managed to discover from Louisa that ‘they cried themselves to sleep’ in chairs which they found in the factory.”
The girls were found when the factory opened and police officers returned them to their relieved parents.
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