FIREMEN QUELL TUNNEL BLAZE
22-HOUR BATTLE IN BLACK HOLE
NEWS CHRONICLE REPORTERS
After a 22-hour battle, relays
of firemen in Oxygen masks late last night subdued London’s greatest
fire since the Blitz.
It was a fire that Londoners could not see in a maze of tunnels 130
feet below the Army’s assembly centre in Tottenham Court Road,
W. Troops call the centre "The Black Hole".
A fireman said: "This need never have happened. We know our chiefs
warned the Ministry of Works time and again about the fire hazard of
this place."
Late yesterday afternoon firemen penetrated to the heart of the blaze
– in a steel-line cul de sac. They met a white-hot wall of flame.
In face of this said a senior fire officer, no man could remain for
more than a few minutes.
Still they battled on. The
heat threatened to melt the steel lining of the tunnel. Then the order
came – as the men were near collapse: "Get out."
Staggered
Among them,
not wearing an oxygen mask, was Mr. L.W.T. Leete, deputy chief officer
of London Fire Brigade. He was in charge of the fire fighting. As his
men staggered back from the flame, muttering information through their
masks, he gave fresh orders.
Eventually, Mr. Leete and his team of weary firemen were hauled and dragged
to safety up 150ft of stairs, at the assembly centre. Said burly Mr. Leete,
his eyelashes sooty: "It was a bit tricky."
Twin lines
A squad of
firemen was sent to a tunnel below the twin lines of the Underground.
Trains had started running again for the rush hour. The passing of the
trains sent a howling breeze through the tunnels and added to the firemen’s
dangers.
Through a passage by way of
steel doors and up steps – the firemen were able to enter another
tunnel which brought them immediately below the blaze.
Stairways leading to the tunnels in which the fire was sizzling had been
demolished by the intense heat. But the firemen battled through.
At last, Mr. Leete was able to announce "outbreak has been quenched."
Ambulances stood by throughout the operation to take firemen, nearly 60
of whom had been overcome earlier, to hospital. None were seriously injured.
* * * * * * * * * *
Speaking in
Parliament, Mr. Gibson questioned the use of the shelter as a transit
centre. "In the minds of some of us who regard it as more like putting
soldiers like rats in a cellar than actually housing them, it ought not
to be allowed to continue. Will the Secretary of State for War now finally
discontinue the use of this dangerous and unsuitable place as a troops
assembly centre?"
Following the fire, the War Office ceased to use the shelter as a transit
centre.