Summerland 50th Anniversary: Survivor recounts traumatic experience escaping fire

• "It was just raining fire" - Jackie Hallam talks through her experience escaping Summerland

It was the fourth day of Jackie's holiday to the Isle of Man with her mum Lorna and best friend Jane.

At 13-years-old, she was having a lovely time taking in the sights with the two people closest to her.

They had spent the week visiting all the island's tourist attractions - Laxey Wheel, Peel Castle, and had even made a wish travelling over the Fairy Bridge.

On Thursday 2 August 1973, they would visit the island's groundbreaking entertainment complex at the end of Douglas Promenade.

But their summer holiday would soon end in tragedy.

Jackie, from Huddersfield, said: "I can remember the entrance being really very narrow when we went in and then there was this huge floor that seemed to be full of activities and excitement.

"My mum was going straight to the sun beds, she just said 'I'll see you later' and went up on the escalator... but of course I never saw her again."

Jackie's mum Lorna went up in the lift to the leisure floor.

Meanwhile, Jackie and her friend Jane went up to level six and stood at the edge of the balcony overlooking the solarium.

"In a split second, the lights went off and a huge black cloud of smoke came up to where we were.

"The next second, the whole wall of the building went up in flames in a second from the bottom to the top just whoosh."

Within minutes, Jackie and Jane found themselves surrounded by fire in the very centre of the blaze.

Jackie said: "The heat was just intense and it just got hotter and hotter... and the fireballs starting coming down from the ceiling and it was just raining fire."

Summerland was wrapped in a building material called Oroglas.

The transparent acrylic sheet was used to create the illusion of artificial sunlight, but it was also highly flammable.

Once the fire had spread up the roof, that Oroglas started to drip from the ceiling down on people below.

Jackie said: "I could feel my clothes melting into me, I felt my hair singe and I knew that I was on fire... and there was nowhere to go."

That was the last thing Jackie remembers before falling unconscious still surrounded by smoke and flame.

"The next thing I remember, I was lying on the ground and I opened my eyes and it was just me there, there was nobody left standing up."

"The only place I could go was back to the railings and I had to step over these poor people that were there lying on the floor and I don't know where Jane was.

"I just took off my shoes, threw down my bag and I just climbed on top of the railing. And I remember just looking at the fire and looking down at the black and thinking I'd rather die from falling into the black than stay where the fire was and I just let go... and I just fell.

"But I landed on something that broke underneath me, and I just saw a spec of light in the distance... and I just ran towards it."

"I still don't know what it was but somebody reached down and got hold of me and pulled me out.

"And then this woman, she came to me and shouted to her husband 'get the car!', and they helped me into the car... and I just stuck to the seats... I didn't have any skin.

"And then there were just various recollections of being in the hospital."

Once Jackie had regained consciousness in hospital, she was told how both her mum Lorna and her best friend Jane had died in the fire.

The deaths of those who perished in the fire were ruled as 'death by misadventure', something that is still disputed by the bereaved families.

"I'm just appalled" - Jackie on the 'death by misadventure' verdict

Jackie's letter to the Chief Minister

Since speaking on camera, Jackie wrote to the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man asking to meet with him ahead of the anniversary.

In response to the government's announcements to commemorate the 50th anniversary, Jackie writes: "If the Manx Government is serious about looking the disaster in the face, I ask you to look it in the face wholeheartedly and honestly."

She also asked he apologised on behalf of the government for what she calls the "choices made by the government in the late 60s/early 70s" which she believes led to the disaster.

Those involved in the disaster finally received an apology from the Chief Minister over the 'pain, harm and failings' on 18 July.

In a statement to the House of Keys, Chief Minister Alfred Cannan said: "I am sorry. Sorry for the pain and suffering felt by everyone affected by the fire and sorry for the failings that could have prevented such a tragedy."

She also believes that "all accountability was absolved" during the public inquiry into the Summerland fire and says it should be addressed, adding that the verdict of death by misadventure is "extremely contentious" and says it continues to distress her to this day.

She also describes how she felt "discarded and isolated" in the months and years that followed the fire, after never being contacted by the government.

"It makes me go cold" - Jackie talks about her feelings towards the Isle of Man

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