Flixborough 1974 Memories – Tony Clark

I was a retained, part time fireman at Scunthorpe, Leading Fireman.

It’s same as I said, when it first happened, I would be the same as everybody else. It was a case of you go down, we were among the first machines there, and it was search and rescue. And then I was pulled out to set up the pumps for pumping water, laying hoses out, putting monitors out. To spray the water wherever we could and bits that happened all then.

It’s hard to describe at times, what we felt, because when we was going down there, we could see the extent of it. And one of the crew says, ‘what we’re going to do?’

I says, ‘put it out’. And all the time you’re thinking. You know, where do we start? Do we go that way? Do we go that way? Or do we go that way? But that was taken out of our hands because there was higher ranked firemen there, so we did as was told.

And so, search and rescue set off. Found nobody, because people was all spread out, you know, big things.

We found out after, that one chap we’d been walking over. He was in a building and the door had blown off just as he got to it, and it flattened him, and he was under the door. And how many people walked over him? We don’t know. He survived and he lived to a fair good age. As it happened, I didn’t know Harry myself, but I knew his son. And Janet, his wife. So, you know, that was one of the odd things that happened.

We got the pumps for pumping water out the Trent and laying hose and putting monitors on to spray.

And then, I don’t know what time would it be, 19:00 or 19:30, I was pulled out again to set up for refreshments. Because the Salvation Army was coming round at that time, and so we had to make somewhere where the people could come and they could put the cups and sandwiches down. And that’s what we did.

And then, I don’t know what time it would be again, but it was late evening. It could have been 10:30. There was another incident happened through Nypro. It had cracked the water mains that fed the blast furnaces at Lysaght’s. So, I was pulled out, told to get two machines, two crews and go up to Lysaght’s to pump water for the blast furnaces. So, we had to go up, it’s dark, find a pit with water in. So, we found that, and we had to carry the pumps over there, settle and then relay the water to the blast furnaces. I was there till 10:30 / 11:00 in the morning and then was relieved. So, I went home, showered. Had a few hours in bed because we had to be back at the station for 5:00 that night.

So, we went out at 5:00 back down to Nypro and it was just a case of monitoring what was happening and just make sure that we’ve got plenty of water. Like that till 5:00 next morning, we got relieved, and I went back home, went to bed, got up, went to work, come home at 10:00. Went to bed, went back to the station next morning and more or less, that’s what it was.

One thing that always sticks out in my mind was the having to go up to Nypro and I shouldn’t say this, but we had an inexperienced officer with us, and he hadn’t got a clue how to handle men and so we revolted in the morning, and he had to go so he left us. Why it happened was, Salvation Army was coming round with food and drink and every time they approached, he would send us out to monitor what was going on. By the time we come back, course they’d gone. So, we had nothing to eat all night, so we weren’t very happy. So about 7:30 in the morning, we said that’s it, we’re not doing any more until we’ve had something to eat.

So he went and another officer come and “Who was in charge?”. I was in charge, so I took him round. He wanted to see what we was doing, so I took him all round and he said “Right, split your crew into two. That half goes off for the breakfast up to the Lysaght’s canteen. We will go when they come back, and you’ll come with me”. So, and everything was fine after that.

So that was more or less that my bit on Nypro, but I shall never forget it.

I joined the fire service in 1956 at Winterton at 18-year-old and then when I got married, I moved to Scunthorpe and I transferred to Scunthorpe station. I did 25 years and then I said that I think I’ve done my whack.

Flixborough 1974 Memories – Barbara Nimmo

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Barbara Nimmo, a nurse who lived at Flixborough.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Dave Butler

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – David Adams

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by David Adams, who worked as Shift Chemist in the laboratory.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Debra Harding-Morris

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Debra Harding-Morris, who lived at Stather Road, Flixborough.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Derek Sheldon

On the 50th Anniversary of the Flixborough Disaster, a poem by Derek Sheldon.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Eddie Hotchin

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Eddie Hotchin, a chemist who worked at Nypro and was on shift at the time of the explosion.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Heather Barczak

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Heather Barczak, whose father Denis Lawrence, was one of the 28 who lost their lives.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Jacquie Carter Irving

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Jacquie Carter Irving, who was on the way home to Ferry Road from the Appleby-Frodingham Gala.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – John Irvine

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by John Irvine, an instrument technician at Nypro who was on site when the explosion took place.

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Flixborough 1974 Memories – Liduina Beckers

Memories of the Nypro disaster recorded by Liduina Beckers, daughter of Nypro’s then General Manager.

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Flixborough 1974 Resource Pack

To assist local schools with this topic, Arts and Heritage Learning have produced a number of teacher resources that are available to North Lincolnshire schools.

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