On the 8th of May, 1979, a taxi driver in Manchester, England, radioed his dispatcher
to say that he could see smoke billowing from a Woolworths supermarket in the middle of
the city.
This information was quickly passed onto the fire brigade, who sped to the scene, arriving
in just under two minutes.
Despite this lightning-fast response, the fire that followed would be one of the deadliest
that Manchester had seen since the end of World War II, and would go down in history
as a terrible and unnecessary waste of human life.
Woolworths in the UK was founded by businessman Frank Woolworth in 1909.
He’d already made a career out of setting up five and dime stores in the United States
under the auspices of the FW Woolworth Company, and in doing so had revolutionised retail
in a number of ways.
For example, he did away with haggling in favour of fixed prices for merchandise, and
put his stock on display in self-service display cabinets, so that shoppers could take a look
at items without having to speak to a sales clerk.
Both of these now commonplace practises were revolutionary at the time, and helped catapult
Frank Woolworth to success as a retail magnate.
Having conquered the states, he was keen to expand his empire to the UK… and he took
the first step towards doing just that in November of 1909, when the first Woolworths
variety store opened in Liverpool.
It did so with a significant amount of fanfare – the opening was celebrated with a full
orchestra, circus acts and a spectacular fireworks display.
From these not-so-humble origins, Woolworths expanded rapidly.
Branches opened across the UK… with the company’s growth pausing only briefly during
the years of World War I and World War II.
As decades passed, Woolworths rapidly became a household name.
It was known for stocking an eclectic range of goods.
In the average store you could purchase everything from furniture to flatware, along with music,
books, toys and (from the 1980s onwards) a bag of candy from their extensive range of
pick ‘n’ mix.
Many outlets also had cafés, where shoppers could rest and get a bite to eat.
The Manchester store was a fairly typical Woolworths.
It was situated in a prime location within Manchester, occupying six floors inside a
grand old building that had once upon a time been a bonded warehouse.
The fire began in the furniture department, and was later traced to a faulty electrical
cable which ignited polyurethane foam furniture that had been stacked for storage.
Polyurethane was, at the time, a brand new material.
Given that it was cheap and durable, its use was widespread…
but unfortunately it wasn’t realised just how dangerous it could be.
Polyurethane foam could be toxic, and was also highly flammable, producing thick extremely
poisonous smoke when burned.
It was this thick, black, toxic smoke which now spread throughout the store.
The sight of it sent shoppers and staff running for the exits… but in areas where the smoke
wasn’t visible the evacuation was slow to start.
Some shoppers later recalled seeing gangs of people running frantically for the exits…
but assumed that these were unruly football fans, and thought nothing further of it until
they saw or smelled the smoke themselves.
Catherine McGuinn, who survived the incident, was dining in the cafe with her daughter when
the fire began, and recalls the event: “My daughter said, 'Mum, I've just heard
someone shout fire.’
I said ‘Don't be silly.’
You could look straight down the floor.
There was no smoke, no fire, no nothing.
We carried on eating.
Then about five minutes later a girl shouted very, very loudly, ‘Fire!
Get out!’
I said, ‘Someone will get a fire extinguisher and put it out.
It's only a little one.'"
After some further encouragement from her daughter, Catherine McGuinn made the fortunate
decision to leave the store.
“We were down about four steps and [my daughter] said, 'Come back a bit while I show you something.’
I went back up with her and... oh, my lord… we looked towards the furniture department
and moving along the ceiling was the most terrible black smoke.
Just rolling along the ceiling.
It was horrible.
And it was coming towards the people who were sat down.
I couldn't do anything about it.
I saw that those people were going to die.”
Alarms did eventually sound throughout the store… but these were not heard on the floors
above the main retail space, where staff members were working in offices and stockrooms.
These workers found themselves trapped by smoke before they had any chance to escape.
Worse still, the windows on these floors were blocked by iron bars – a legacy from when
the building had been a bonded warehouse.
Even though firefighters arrived on scene almost instantly, and could reach the floors
where staff members were trapped with extendable ladders, they had to wait for specialist equipment
to cut the bars before they could get them out.
Some customers were unable to find an exit in the thick black smoke – a task made especially
difficult as several emergency exits were locked to prevent shoplifting.
With nowhere else to go, they fled to the roof, from which firefighters were able to
evacuate them using cherry pickers.
This was a painfully slow process, as there was space for only five at a time in the basket
of each cherry picker.
Fearing that they would not be rescued in time, a significant number of people on the
roof re-entered the building and tried to find an alternate way out.
One firefighter was shocked to see the crowd awaiting rescue dwindle each time he went
back up to the roof.
Having at first seen around 50 people waiting there, he eventually was only able to retrieve
13, with the remainder fleeing back into the store, despite his assurances that the fire
would not break through to the roof.
Despite an intense rescue effort, by the time the flames were extinguished around two hours
later, ten people had lost their lives.
Among the dead were 31-year-old Michael Archer, 68-year-old Sarah Jane Bird, 86-year-old Dorothy
Botham, 69-year-old Helena Gunn, 29-year-old Hazel Ann Heaton, 32-year-old Susan Heaton,
70-year-old, Albert Edward McNally, 73-year-old Ernest Naylor, and 59-year-old Patricia Jean
Simmonds. 68-year-old Cyril Baldwin, a Woolworths staff member who had been an auxiliary fireman
during the Second World War also died whilst helping customers escape.
In the aftermath of the disaster, an investigation was launched.
The issues it uncovered were numerous: the store had no sprinkler system, despite its
size.
The fire alarm did not sound in every area of the building.
Staff had not been trained on the procedure for calling the fire brigade.
Some emergency doors had to be opened using a key from a break glass box beside the door,
even though this type of fire exit had been found to be deadly in other recent building
fires.
Still other exits were completely locked with no key available at all – ostensibly as
a measure against shoplifting.
These issues were surprising given that this was not the first time a Woolworths store
had caught fire.
In 1973 a fire had ripped through a store in Colchester.
The absence of a sprinkler system allowed the fire to spread rapidly, and it was noted
that several customers refused to evacuate until they had finished meals or drinks they
had paid for.
Both these issues foreshadowed what would happen in Manchester six years later.
Instead of learning from this earlier fire, though, Woolworths management had instead
opted to focus on rebuilding and reopening the Colchester store as soon as possible.
They received an insurance payout that amply covered the damage done, and were able to
relocate the gutted store to a bigger and more modern building.
The Colchester fire could have been a wake-up call.
Instead it was treated as little more than an inconvenience.
A potential opportunity to avert the devastating Manchester fire was missed.
Coverage of the Manchester fire was extensive, and it did lead to some positive changes in
regulation.
One major factor in the fire was the abundance of polyurethane furniture inside the store.
The flammability of this material and the thick poisonous smoke it produced made the
fire significantly more deadly.
Following the fire a campaign to require furniture makers to use fire-resistant materials was
launched.
It took nine years of hard work and dedication on the part of many different people to persuade
the government of the need for change, but in 1988, the Furniture and Furnishings Fire
Safety Regulations act came into force.
The use of more fireproof materials in furniture has, over the course of many years, no doubt
saved hundreds of lives.
On top of this, the furore which followed the fire lead to a change in leadership at
Woolworths.
Under new ownership, stores across the country installed state-of-the-art sprinkler systems,
and retrained staff in how to respond to emergencies.
Woolworths also made some notable additions to its already eclectic range.
For as long as the chain remained in business, domestic smoke alarms were sold in almost
every branch of Woolworths across the country, with management working hard to both promote
the use of, and drive down the cost of these life-saving devices.