Firefighter recalls 'heaps of bodies by the doors' during Summerland Disaster

• Video report by Granada Reports Isle of Man correspondent Joshua Stokes.

A firefighter who attended the Summerland disaster in 1973 says if the service had been called earlier the outcome would have been different.

Alan Christian was one of the first firefighters on the scene of the blaze that was, at the time, the worst peacetime loss of life in a fire disaster since the blitz.

"We got a 999 call which I think I'm right in saying was from a boat out in the bay and it called us to a ghost fire which was behind Summerland," said Mr Christian.

"We could see the fire over in the distance, but when we got about half away along the promenade. it became obvious then the fire wasn't behind Summerland, it was in Summerland."

The disaster claimed the lives of 50 people, made up of people in the Summerland leisure centre that opened two years prior.

Mr Christian continued: "By the time we got there, there was no way we were ever gonna save that building.

"You could actually see the flames moving across the face of the building, it was burning that quick.

"We got a jet to work up on the first floor where the fire started. The fire was so intense at this stage, that it had no effect on it."

The roof was made of Oroglas, an acrylic plastic, that was burning and dripping onto people who were trying to escape.

"When the firemen got there, they found that the exit doors were chained and padlocked," said Mr Christian.

"As people got trapped down below, they couldn't go back up because of the fire and they couldn't go back up because there were more people coming down.

"So in the end, when the firefighters actually got in there, that's where they found heap of bodies by the doors and all the way up the staircase."

Mr Christian said him and his team, spent nearly two hours under a canopy where they were bringing casualties out.

As most of the exits were closed off, that was the one of the main escape routes from all floors of the building.

The fire was started by three young boys from Liverpool who were smoking in a small disused kiosk at around 7.30pm on 2 August 1973.

A discarded cigarette caused the kiosk to catch fire, which then collapsed against the building, and within minutes it was ablaze.

The public inquiry titled 'The Summerland Fire Commission' (SFC) was published in May 1974 and concluded in 'death by misadventure' to those who had died.

"There was a lot of people that should have been held accountable, the boys were fairly young and you have to take that into consideration, and I don't think they for one moment set fire to it to destroy the building," continued Mr Christian.

"When you look at the actual overall responsibility, the architects they got away with it, the management of Summerland, the fire alarm wasn't sounding at all."

The report also found the high number of deaths were down to delayed evacuation of the building and the inadequate means of escape including no fire alarm sounding which also slowed evacuation.

Mr Christian said: "The young girl as I understand it, in the control panel, she didn't know what to do with it.

"They must have been trying to put the fire out for half an hour before they called us. If we had been called at twenty to eight, I am still convinced that we would have just extinguished the plastic kiosk on the first floor...and the next morning there would have just been a fire report on the chief officer's desk saying we turned up to Summerland and extinguished a summer hut."

The Isle of Man's Chief Minister has apologised for the first time in 50 years, but for many of the survivors and families of victims the 'death by misadventure' ruling needs to be overturned.

"I think people wanted to, for want of a better term, brush it under the carpet," concluded Mr Christian.

"They didn't want to talk about Summerland, they just didn't want to know. The government didn't really do an awful lot, look at the site over there now, it's an absolute disgrace."

"Our Chief Minister has now made an official apology to the people which is a start. The people who have lost relations are wanting to turn over the misadventure verdict, and I can see why."

"It's not misadventure, if it happened today with corporate responsibility, I think the outcome would be completely different."