I make no apologies for the length of this posting, I’ve written a piece which outlines the sheer size of the Flixborough incident back in 1974 and hopefully the pictures will help to add more detail to the written piece, more pics to follow in part 2, enjoy …
FLIXBOROUGH 1974
Until 1652hrs on Saturday 1st June 1974, the day had gone off relatively uneventful, as the clock ticked over to the next minute, 28 people died and over 100 were injured.
The Nypro plant was about four and a half miles north west of Scunthorpe on the east bank of the River Trent. At more than 60 acres in size the factory provided employment for approximately 560 people, manufacturing their main product Caprolactum, a basic material used in the manufacturing of textiles and carpets.
Following a direct fire alarm call, fire engines from Scunthorpe Fire Station set off for the factory and because of the huge plume of smoke over the plant an assistance message was sent requesting five fire engines to attend. As the crews headed towards the Nypro plant it soon became clear that this was something much more than an everyday industrial fire. Many of the houses and buildings up to four and a half miles away from the site were badly damaged, on seeing this devastation a further assistance message was sent asking for a fleet of ambulances to be sent to the scene.
Much later it was discovered that some panels from the plant had landed in the village of North Ferriby more than 10 miles away on the north bank of the River Humber.
Still two miles away, the Station Officer on the first fire engine requested 10 fire engines to attend the scene, a message which stood for only a few minutes because when he arrived at the incident, he asked for 20 engines stating “the whole area is devastated”. The rendezvous point for the Nypro plant was the car park, when the first fire engines arrived the car park was none existent except for a couple of twisted, burning remains of workers cars.
Not long after their arrival at the fire, assistance was requested for 30 fire engines… Just a quick note here, remember this was before the Humber Bridge was opened and the journey round from Hull took some considerable time.
Many of the areas not affected directly by the severe fires were extensively damaged by the blast. It was also essential to cool some of the tanks and spheres not yet affected to prevent further explosions and loss. Huge quantities of water were needed not only to combat the blaze but also to help with the cooling operation but it soon became clear that the factory water mains and pump had been ruptured in the explosion. The nearest water supply was the River Trent, a tidal river so a barge had to be commandeered to provide a floating platform for ten light pumps.
Six inch hose was laid as soon as possible to supply more water to the heart of the operation. At the height of the incident the equivalent of 19 miles of firefighting hose was used to combat the Nypro fire.
Additionally the pipeline supplying the blast furnace cooling at the nearby Normanby Park Steelworks had been shattered in the explosion creating an extreme risk of an explosion. A further 10 fire engines were sent to the site to provide the urgently required water supplies.
Breathing apparatus played a big part in the search for survivors in the initial stages but in view of the chances of survival being remote and the dangers of further explosions, fire crews were withdrawn for their own safety.
A constant threat was the huge toxic cloud that hung over the site and in view of this over 3,000 people had to be evacuated from nearby villages and further people had to be evacuated on the North Bank of the Humber as the cloud drifted.
Whilst it any chance of survival was clearly ruled out, three days after the explosion fire fighters investigating the explosion found three kittens alive and well near to the factory control room. Others in the litter sadly didn’t survive.
A tall distillation tower had been dislodged by the explosion and posed a further risk to fire crews and it started to sway about, as there was a danger of collapse, an specialist crane was brought on to the site and the 80 tonnes tower was laid on it’s side.
The last fire to be extinguished on the site was a flange fire in a cyclohexane tank which was left burning for 16 days, once this fire had been put out it was necessary to fill all of the tanks and pipework on the plant with inert foam to prevent further explosions.
The insurance claim for the incident was in excess of £37m (remember this was 1974) and interestingly it cost a further £29m to import enough Caprolactum into the UK to replace lost production.
