Dennis Javelin wrote;
This is the remains of a fire engine (looks like an AEC) that attended a major fire in Cheapside St, Glasgow in 1960. The fire was in a bonded warehouse holding over a million gallons of whisky and 30,000 gallons of rum used by Arbuckle Smith & Co and an explosion blew the building apart. A total of 14 firefighters and salvage crew lost their lives.
It was an AEC Merryweather Turntable Ladder and would have looked like the one below of Tynemouth Fire Service, comparing the two photo’s the severe damage to the Glasgow machine becomes obvious and tragic, it hasn’t had time to deploy as the ladder is still stowed so the crew would likely have still been inside. The pipework on the front is the high pressure water monitor operated by the Fireman (as it was in those days) at the top of the ladder. Sad to see. Franky.
