Summerland 40Th Anniversary

[quilp]

I was 13 that year, a group of us were playing football in the square of garages behind Windsor road; where Windsor Court now stands. We noticed a great, black plume of smoke and rushed down Crellins Hill to the 'Rendezvous' and saw the blaze, at this time about half-way up one side of the building. A couple of us ran the whole way over to the site to watch. By the time we got there the building was completely ablaze and there were hundreds of people standing around, awestruck at what was unfolding. We stood at the bottom of the foot-bridge which straddled the road. One of my most abiding memories was of a guy wandering around calling out for (i can only presume) family members. His jacket was smoking and had shrunk about his torso, his hair burnt away and in a state of complete shock. All around people were screaming and crying, some sat silent, their heads in their hands. Others wandered aimlessly, the whites of their eyes made starker because of their blackened-faces; adults and children alike.

I can only suppose the fire and ambulance crews did their very best, the sight of one fireman, with tears streaming down his also blackened face, brought home the seriousness of what was happening. They were just over-whelmed, completely. Tragic and very sad, harking back as i write this.

A picture appeared on the front of (i think) the Daily Mirror which showed a figure standing on one of the staircases, apparently welded or melted in an upright position, holding on to the bannister-rail. Included in the report accompanying the photo's, a description was given of three boys seen running away from the scene. The implication was that these boys had something to do with the fire and were wanted by the local police. The description of one of these boys was ''blonde, with a 'German-Helmet' type haircut'', a fashionable style at the time, rather like a 'mullet'.

Two nights later, myself and a friend were walking down Mount Havelock (he with much the same type of haircut and us both fitting the descriptions given) when two Mini's screeched to a halt beside us, the doors flung open and suddenly we were surrounded by CID men, one of whom, without warning or explanation, slapped me hard around the face and head a couple of times, grabbed me by the hair and bundled me into the back of one car, my mate thrown into the back of the other. We were then driven, at speed, the short distance into Hill Street, and came to a halt outside what is now 'Bar George'. Once again, i was grabbed by the hair and dragged out of the car and in through the first set of doors, all the while being shouted-at and generally roughed-up.

Saint Georges hall was were some of the bodies were taken because of the overload at Nobles and down each side of that small hall were sheets, laid out on the floor on top of which lay the only partly covered bodies of the victims. The was a pervading smell of disinfectant, which poorly masked what i can only describe as the smell of, well, cooked meat. By this time of course, i was in shock myself, made worse by the detective, still dragging me this way and that by the scruff of my neck, shouting in my face, '' You did this, didn't you...?''. The same treatment being meted-out to my mate. At the end of that hall there used to be a small stage area and on it was a table covered with paper-work. We were man-handled into a seat and questions/accusations fired at us regarding the fire. The violence continued also, until one copper told the other to stop. We were arrested, photographed and finger-printed too.

At this point, my memory fails me as i was by this time in tears/extreme shock and wanted my parents. The rest is just a blur; i don't remember much of what happened after this, not getting home or how. The cops had us there for what was probably a couple of hours then took us home. I remember being put in our backroom whilst the cop explained to my parents, in another room, what had taken place.

After telling my parents what had happened and what had been done to us, my mother and father went into a rage and we took off for the police station, just off Athol Street, as it was then. Frank Weedon was, if i remember correctly, the Chief Constable and knew my mother, (possibly because they were both scousers!) who demanded his presence. Once again, the exact details are a bit of a blur but i remember a lot of shouting and my father saying something like, 'I know when my son is lying and it's not now', my mother in tears (of outrage more than anything, i suspect).

A few days later, when the boy's who were actually responsible for setting the initial, small-fire in an adjoining kiosk, which caused the fatal conflagration, were caught, the Chief Constable called at our house with a large brown envelope containing the photographs and fingerprints taken from me. My mother invited him in and made him tear up the prints in front of us and throw them in the fire.

 

It was an horrendous episode, and what happened to me is nowt compared to the plight of others. The memory of the whole affair shudders me to this day.

If any memorial is to be made it should be on the site of the fire itself, not stuck away in the place designated.

As far as the Oroglas goes, the manufacturers of this product had designed a sprinkler system to be installed with their product in the event of fire but this advice was completely ignored due to cost and blind ignorance. I can remember seeing on the night, sheets of it shrinking out of the frame and falling into the heart of the fire.

 

Strangely-enough, there exists on youtube, a video of our currently-suspended Attorney-General, being interviewed by ITN, giving his eye-witness account. My friend and i stand directly behind him.

 

Years later i befriended the son of one of the architects who told me his father had never gotten over feeling responsible for what happened.

There are others who effectively got away scott-free with what now may be classed as corporate-manslaughter.

 

A tragedy that should never've happened.

[The Last Bulgam Miner]

 

 

 

I would greatly appreciate being pointed in the direction of the "prominent people still keeping their heads below the pavement" as I still have questions I require answers to.

Most of the flack was taken by the chief fire officer who signed the building off as being safe. He got sacked

That is a very bold statement cheeky boy can you please quote your evidence!

I think Butch may be right.

 

http://home.ubalt.ed...summerland.html

 

Quote: Rohm and Haas, the manufacturers of Oroglas, themselves state that "There is no building code in America which would allow it [Oroglas] to be used overall as it was at the Summerland centre. A structure like that would just not have been allowed in America." U.S. fire codes require a comprehensive sprinkler system to be installed wherever Oroglas was used on a large scale, and in fact the UK subsidiaries of Rohm and Haas were aware of these codes and requirements...but did not pass them on to the Isle of Man chief fire officer.

 

Maybe Local knowledge: The Fire Officer's health... When the above was revealed, it destroyed him!!

 

The winter before completion 'off-cuts' of Oroglas were burnt in braziers onsite. Some I knew (now deceased) mentioned ' what off-cuts would fit in their workbags would give them a full tank

of hot water...

 

Hindsight is wonderful thing... I remember, we didn't go there that night because of the Fire Engines along the prom and just a little puff of what looked like steam from the upper outside putting area. Me and my mates headed for the Barbary... Thinking no point going to Jonny Silva's Disco - by the time everyone got back in after the 'False Alarm'... When I got home, Border TV were appealing for Blood Donors for the disaster that was still happening...

 

The wife and I went to pictures that night cause a couple we were going to Summerland with couldnt get a baby sitter. On the way we drove down Little Switzerland ( it was through road then) to watch the fire. In the middle of the pictures, an appeal appeared on the screen for blood doners. The rest is history...... Everyone involved has there own story to tell, and there will be hundreds of stories....

[The Last Bulgam Miner]

Years later i befriended the son of one of the architects who told me his father had never gotten over feeling responsible for what happened.

There are others who effectively got away scott-free with what now may be classed as corporate-manslaughter.

 

A tragedy that should never've happened.

 

A very moving story quilp, and I hope it conveys to folk to whom Summerland is just a name, how everyone, the whole community, was touched by this tragedy. As I said, there will be hundreds of stories because a lot of people are still alive who had to deal with the consequences.

As for St Georges Bar, I was working there the week after the fire , upstairs was turned into an incident room, while the bodies were kept downstairs. They were their for nearly a week I think. Nothing could hide the smell. The bodies were only wrapped in plastic sheeting, there were no body bags in those days, and they leaked onto the floor, staining the floor boards.

 

When the building was opened as Bar George I visited the place to try it with some friends. I felt decidedly uncomfortable after we went in, and then I saw that the staining on the floor, I told the bar staff what I knew but they thought I was taking the p***. The floor boards were bare and you could see the stains. I have never been able to go back into the building.

[irishone]

I was 13 that year, a group of us were playing football in the square of garages behind Windsor road; where Windsor Court now stands. We noticed a great, black plume of smoke and rushed down Crellins Hill to the 'Rendezvous' and saw the blaze, at this time about half-way up one side of the building. A couple of us ran the whole way over to the site to watch. By the time we got there the building was completely ablaze and there were hundreds of people standing around, awestruck at what was unfolding. We stood at the bottom of the foot-bridge which straddled the road. One of my most abiding memories was of a guy wandering around calling out for (i can only presume) family members. His jacket was smoking and had shrunk about his torso, his hair burnt away and in a state of complete shock. All around people were screaming and crying, some sat silent, their heads in their hands. Others wandered aimlessly, the whites of their eyes made starker because of their blackened-faces; adults and children alike.

I can only suppose the fire and ambulance crews did their very best, the sight of one fireman, with tears streaming down his also blackened face, brought home the seriousness of what was happening. They were just over-whelmed, completely. Tragic and very sad, harking back as i write this.

A picture appeared on the front of (i think) the Daily Mirror which showed a figure standing on one of the staircases, apparently welded or melted in an upright position, holding on to the bannister-rail. Included in the report accompanying the photo's, a description was given of three boys seen running away from the scene. The implication was that these boys had something to do with the fire and were wanted by the local police. The description of one of these boys was ''blonde, with a 'German-Helmet' type haircut'', a fashionable style at the time, rather like a 'mullet'.

Two nights later, myself and a friend were walking down Mount Havelock (he with much the same type of haircut and us both fitting the descriptions given) when two Mini's screeched to a halt beside us, the doors flung open and suddenly we were surrounded by CID men, one of whom, without warning or explanation, slapped me hard around the face and head a couple of times, grabbed me by the hair and bundled me into the back of one car, my mate thrown into the back of the other. We were then driven, at speed, the short distance into Hill Street, and came to a halt outside what is now 'Bar George'. Once again, i was grabbed by the hair and dragged out of the car and in through the first set of doors, all the while being shouted-at and generally roughed-up.

Saint Georges hall was were some of the bodies were taken because of the overload at Nobles and down each side of that small hall were sheets, laid out on the floor on top of which lay the only partly covered bodies of the victims. The was a pervading smell of disinfectant, which poorly masked what i can only describe as the smell of, well, cooked meat. By this time of course, i was in shock myself, made worse by the detective, still dragging me this way and that by the scruff of my neck, shouting in my face, '' You did this, didn't you...?''. The same treatment being meted-out to my mate. At the end of that hall there used to be a small stage area and on it was a table covered with paper-work. We were man-handled into a seat and questions/accusations fired at us regarding the fire. The violence continued also, until one copper told the other to stop. We were arrested, photographed and finger-printed too.

At this point, my memory fails me as i was by this time in tears/extreme shock and wanted my parents. The rest is just a blur; i don't remember much of what happened after this, not getting home or how. The cops had us there for what was probably a couple of hours then took us home. I remember being put in our backroom whilst the cop explained to my parents, in another room, what had taken place.

After telling my parents what had happened and what had been done to us, my mother and father went into a rage and we took off for the police station, just off Athol Street, as it was then. Frank Weedon was, if i remember correctly, the Chief Constable and knew my mother, (possibly because they were both scousers!) who demanded his presence. Once again, the exact details are a bit of a blur but i remember a lot of shouting and my father saying something like, 'I know when my son is lying and it's not now', my mother in tears (of outrage more than anything, i suspect).

A few days later, when the boy's who were actually responsible for setting the initial, small-fire in an adjoining kiosk, which caused the fatal conflagration, were caught, the Chief Constable called at our house with a large brown envelope containing the photographs and fingerprints taken from me. My mother invited him in and made him tear up the prints in front of us and throw them in the fire.

 

It was an horrendous episode, and what happened to me is nowt compared to the plight of others. The memory of the whole affair shudders me to this day.

If any memorial is to be made it should be on the site of the fire itself, not stuck away in the place designated.

As far as the Oroglas goes, the manufacturers of this product had designed a sprinkler system to be installed with their product in the event of fire but this advice was completely ignored due to cost and blind ignorance. I can remember seeing on the night, sheets of it shrinking out of the frame and falling into the heart of the fire.

 

Strangely-enough, there exists on youtube, a video of our currently-suspended Attorney-General, being interviewed by ITN, giving his eye-witness account. My friend and i stand directly behind him.

 

Years later i befriended the son of one of the architects who told me his father had never gotten over feeling responsible for what happened.

There are others who effectively got away scott-free with what now may be classed as corporate-manslaughter.

 

A tragedy that should never've happened.

You are right about the memorial, I expected it to be at the site of the fire! when I was taken in to see it last May, my attention was captured by the statue-and I was amazed when the memorial was finally pointed out to me! I used a stone of a similar size to mark where my dog is buried! Your story is fascinating! One of the hardest things for me has been the lack of information about Summerland. As a child I met one person here in N.I. who had been injured, but have never met anyone else, I think it would have been a great help to be able to talk to people who were in the same situation.

[irishone]

 

 

 

 

I would greatly appreciate being pointed in the direction of the "prominent people still keeping their heads below the pavement" as I still have questions I require answers to.

Most of the flack was taken by the chief fire officer who signed the building off as being safe. He got sacked

That is a very bold statement cheeky boy can you please quote your evidence!

I think Butch may be right.

 

http://home.ubalt.ed...summerland.html

 

Quote: Rohm and Haas, the manufacturers of Oroglas, themselves state that "There is no building code in America which would allow it [Oroglas] to be used overall as it was at the Summerland centre. A structure like that would just not have been allowed in America." U.S. fire codes require a comprehensive sprinkler system to be installed wherever Oroglas was used on a large scale, and in fact the UK subsidiaries of Rohm and Haas were aware of these codes and requirements...but did not pass them on to the Isle of Man chief fire officer.

 

Maybe Local knowledge: The Fire Officer's health... When the above was revealed, it destroyed him!!

 

The winter before completion 'off-cuts' of Oroglas were burnt in braziers onsite. Some I knew (now deceased) mentioned ' what off-cuts would fit in their workbags would give them a full tank

of hot water...

 

Hindsight is wonderful thing... I remember, we didn't go there that night because of the Fire Engines along the prom and just a little puff of what looked like steam from the upper outside putting area. Me and my mates headed for the Barbary... Thinking no point going to Jonny Silva's Disco - by the time everyone got back in after the 'False Alarm'... When I got home, Border TV were appealing for Blood Donors for the disaster that was still happening...

 

The wife and I went to pictures that night cause a couple we were going to Summerland with couldnt get a baby sitter. On the way we drove down Little Switzerland ( it was through road then) to watch the fire. In the middle of the pictures, an appeal appeared on the screen for blood doners. The rest is history...... Everyone involved has there own story to tell, and there will be hundreds of stories....

I received blood in Nobles hospital, I remember it clearly-I have terrible veins and I have a 2 inch long scar on the inside of my elbow and a much larger one on top of my leg, to enable the transfusion. I am so grateful to those who donated-I would be very proud to think I have had Manx blood running through My veins!!

[irishone]

 

I would greatly appreciate being pointed in the direction of the "prominent people still keeping their heads below the pavement" as I still have questions I require answers to.

The architect was J Phillips Lomas, I don't remember him being held responsible despite him specifying "Oroglas" for the cladding and not designing adequate fire escape routes

 

The building was owned by Douglas Corporation but was leased to Trust House Forte. Some of the fire doors were padlocked by their staff but the manager, Mr Bertorelli, perished in the blaze

 

Most of the flack was taken by the chief fire officer who signed the building off as being safe. He got sacked

Is the fire officer still alive? I am horrified to think that the poor man had to shoulder the blame-he was only one link in the chain!!

[manxman1980]

Is the fire officer still alive? I am horrified to think that the poor man had to shoulder the blame-he was only one link in the chain!!

 

Interesting comment... That links in with another tragedy that was remembered recently - Piper Alpha. That, and Summerland, are perfect examples of why Health & Safety has become so important. A string of small errors and oversights happen one after the other and lead to a terrible disaster and loss of life. I have studied the Piper Alpha disaster as part of a Health & Safety course and I know a trainer who uses the Summerland fire as a "case study" as well.

 

It is good to use these as examples to reinforce the importance of considering hazards, risks and controls and, in my opinion, means that something positive may have come from a tragedy. I wonder how many more lives were "saved" as a result?

 

(None of that takes away from any of the personal experiences and loss. I hope that it does show that in some places the Summerland fire has not been forgotten and is still influencing thinking.)

[Roger Mexico]

irishone - If you click on the first link in my post above you can (eventually) see a picture of the new memorial. You will need to tick to "I agree to this statement box" and then click on the "proceed to document box". The planning application will open in a separate PDF window (you may need to click on that to display it) and the mock-up photo is on page 4. It says the new memorial is about 2 metres high, so it will be a bit of an improvement.

[Roger Mexico]

quilp - reading your story I couldn't help thinking of the contrast with what you read about what happens in other countries when a building collapses or there is some other disaster (that dreadful fire in the Bangladesh garment factory for example). In those places the police will at least immediately arrest the building owners, the property developers, the planners, whatever. Here we bring down the full force of the law on small boys with unusual haircuts.

 

When you read even the most summary account of the fire, the Wiki entry for example, it becomes clear that Summerland was a disaster waiting to happen. None of the materials seem to have been properly fire resistant, not just the Oroglass, and any small fire that happened in the vicinity was bound to spread and spread fast. In some ways it's a surprise that Summerland lasted two and a half seasons without something happening.

[cheeky boy]

I was 13 that year, a group of us were playing football in the square of garages behind Windsor road; where Windsor Court now stands. We noticed a great, black plume of smoke and rushed down Crellins Hill to the 'Rendezvous' and saw the blaze, at this time about half-way up one side of the building. A couple of us ran the whole way over to the site to watch. By the time we got there the building was completely ablaze and there were hundreds of people standing around, awestruck at what was unfolding. We stood at the bottom of the foot-bridge which straddled the road. One of my most abiding memories was of a guy wandering around calling out for (i can only presume) family members. His jacket was smoking and had shrunk about his torso, his hair burnt away and in a state of complete shock. All around people were screaming and crying, some sat silent, their heads in their hands. Others wandered aimlessly, the whites of their eyes made starker because of their blackened-faces; adults and children alike.

I can only suppose the fire and ambulance crews did their very best, the sight of one fireman, with tears streaming down his also blackened face, brought home the seriousness of what was happening. They were just over-whelmed, completely. Tragic and very sad, harking back as i write this.

A picture appeared on the front of (i think) the Daily Mirror which showed a figure standing on one of the staircases, apparently welded or melted in an upright position, holding on to the bannister-rail. Included in the report accompanying the photo's, a description was given of three boys seen running away from the scene. The implication was that these boys had something to do with the fire and were wanted by the local police. The description of one of these boys was ''blonde, with a 'German-Helmet' type haircut'', a fashionable style at the time, rather like a 'mullet'.

Two nights later, myself and a friend were walking down Mount Havelock (he with much the same type of haircut and us both fitting the descriptions given) when two Mini's screeched to a halt beside us, the doors flung open and suddenly we were surrounded by CID men, one of whom, without warning or explanation, slapped me hard around the face and head a couple of times, grabbed me by the hair and bundled me into the back of one car, my mate thrown into the back of the other. We were then driven, at speed, the short distance into Hill Street, and came to a halt outside what is now 'Bar George'. Once again, i was grabbed by the hair and dragged out of the car and in through the first set of doors, all the while being shouted-at and generally roughed-up.

Saint Georges hall was were some of the bodies were taken because of the overload at Nobles and down each side of that small hall were sheets, laid out on the floor on top of which lay the only partly covered bodies of the victims. The was a pervading smell of disinfectant, which poorly masked what i can only describe as the smell of, well, cooked meat. By this time of course, i was in shock myself, made worse by the detective, still dragging me this way and that by the scruff of my neck, shouting in my face, '' You did this, didn't you...?''. The same treatment being meted-out to my mate. At the end of that hall there used to be a small stage area and on it was a table covered with paper-work. We were man-handled into a seat and questions/accusations fired at us regarding the fire. The violence continued also, until one copper told the other to stop. We were arrested, photographed and finger-printed too.

At this point, my memory fails me as i was by this time in tears/extreme shock and wanted my parents. The rest is just a blur; i don't remember much of what happened after this, not getting home or how. The cops had us there for what was probably a couple of hours then took us home. I remember being put in our backroom whilst the cop explained to my parents, in another room, what had taken place.

After telling my parents what had happened and what had been done to us, my mother and father went into a rage and we took off for the police station, just off Athol Street, as it was then. Frank Weedon was, if i remember correctly, the Chief Constable and knew my mother, (possibly because they were both scousers!) who demanded his presence. Once again, the exact details are a bit of a blur but i remember a lot of shouting and my father saying something like, 'I know when my son is lying and it's not now', my mother in tears (of outrage more than anything, i suspect).

A few days later, when the boy's who were actually responsible for setting the initial, small-fire in an adjoining kiosk, which caused the fatal conflagration, were caught, the Chief Constable called at our house with a large brown envelope containing the photographs and fingerprints taken from me. My mother invited him in and made him tear up the prints in front of us and throw them in the fire.

 

It was an horrendous episode, and what happened to me is nowt compared to the plight of others. The memory of the whole affair shudders me to this day.

If any memorial is to be made it should be on the site of the fire itself, not stuck away in the place designated.

As far as the Oroglas goes, the manufacturers of this product had designed a sprinkler system to be installed with their product in the event of fire but this advice was completely ignored due to cost and blind ignorance. I can remember seeing on the night, sheets of it shrinking out of the frame and falling into the heart of the fire.

 

Strangely-enough, there exists on youtube, a video of our currently-suspended Attorney-General, being interviewed by ITN, giving his eye-witness account. My friend and i stand directly behind him.

 

Years later i befriended the son of one of the architects who told me his father had never gotten over feeling responsible for what happened.

There are others who effectively got away scott-free with what now may be classed as corporate-manslaughter.

 

A tragedy that should never've happened.

 

 

Fuck me Quilp, I remember the atmosphere at the time and didn't realise you had been hauled in and subjected to such an ordeal, old fashioned police work for you eh ?

 

Some time after the fire, the manager of the Golden Egg Restaurant was murdered. We were camping up at the Braid that night and the following morning two of us hitched into town and were picked up by one of the CID Minis

 

Our ordeal was confined to the three mile journey and consisted of a Q&A session as to our background and whereabouts the previous night, after which we were let go

 

Interestingly, someone who was involved in the Quilp incident has been veiwing this forum

Edited July 7, 2013 by cheeky boy

[Gladys]

A sorry tale, Quilp. However, that story has stirred some memories. I think there was some chit chat at school about the fair haired lad, surname beginning with 'M (?)', at the time - mainly, how he had been wrongly accused of some involvement but quickly dispelled when the real hapless lads were identified.

 

 

Absolutely terrible for you and for the real perpetrators - they only set in train a sequence of events they had no idea where or how it would end. Not like many others who set up the dominoes just ready for any minor event to start the topple.

[Thomas Jefferson]

 

Absolutely terrible for you and for the real perpetrators - they only set in train a sequence of events they had no idea where or how it would end. Not like many others who set up the dominoes just ready for any minor event to start the topple.

 

What became of the kids who accidentally started the fire?

[quilp]

A sorry tale, Quilp. However, that story has stirred some memories. I think there was some chit chat at school about the fair haired lad, surname beginning with 'M (?)', at the time - mainly, how he had been wrongly accused of some involvement but quickly dispelled when the real hapless lads were identified.

 

 

Absolutely terrible for you and for the real perpetrators - they only set in train a sequence of events they had no idea where or how it would end. Not like many others who set up the dominoes just ready for any minor event to start the topple.

 

 

Yes Gladys, you've got 'M' dead-on. I've gotten to think of those lads whose actions led to the disaster and wonder how their lives've panned-out. They were eventually charged with criminal damage, to the padlock on the kiosk that served the 'Crazy Golf', if i remember correctly.

I was having a drink in the 'Legion', this TT week, and noticed the copper who'd been 'very handy' with me and 'M'. Sat and wondered what his memories were. I guess feelings ran pretty high with the cops at the time and they were looking for a result.

Other stuff i recall is that my sister, who'd only just passed her driving-test was busy running some of the less-injured to Nobles and then picking-up blood-donors and ferrying them to the hospital. Weren't some of the local cabbies also involved with this? Maybe Lonan3 could shed light on this...?

[NoTail]

I was lucky - at the time (I was about 14) we were on holiday in Germany.

 

I was the one who saw the photo in the German papers - I was horrified. I spent a lot of time in Summerland.

 

Now memories are being rekindled - a sad sad time. I didn't realise that no one of importance was brought to book. Surely someone was punished (not the kids).

[Gladys]

 

 

A sorry tale, Quilp. However, that story has stirred some memories. I think there was some chit chat at school about the fair haired lad, surname beginning with 'M (?)', at the time - mainly, how he had been wrongly accused of some involvement but quickly dispelled when the real hapless lads were identified.

 

 

Absolutely terrible for you and for the real perpetrators - they only set in train a sequence of events they had no idea where or how it would end. Not like many others who set up the dominoes just ready for any minor event to start the topple.

 

Yes Gladys, you've got 'M' dead-on. I've gotten to think of those lads whose actions led to the disaster and wonder how their lives've panned-out. They were eventually charged with criminal damage, to the padlock on the kiosk that served the 'Crazy Golf', if i remember correctly.

I was having a drink in the 'Legion', this TT week, and noticed the copper who'd been 'very handy' with me and 'M'. Sat and wondered what his memories were. I guess feelings ran pretty high with the cops at the time and they were looking for a result.

Other stuff i recall is that my sister, who'd only just passed her driving-test was busy running some of the less-injured to Nobles and then picking-up blood-donors and ferrying them to the hospital. Weren't some of the local cabbies also involved with this? Maybe Lonan3 could shed light on this...?

You should have asked him.