Worsley Hotel fire

The Worsley Hotel Fire was a major fire at the Worsley Hotel in Maida Vale, London on 13 December 1974. It killed 7 people, including a probationary firefighter.

Hotel

The Worsley Hotel was a series of interconnecting houses of 4 or 5 storeys comprising Nos 3-19 Clifton Gardens, Maida Vale, London W9, a road of Edwardian houses between Warwick Avenue and Maida Vale, London. At the time of the fire, it was used by the hotel industry to house hotel and catering employees, many of whom were of foreign origin and working or training in hotels in Central London.

Fire

On the night of Thursday 12 December 1974, (as it turned out) two fires were deliberately lit in the early hours. Several occupants were aroused by the smell of smoke, and on discovering fire raised the alarm as best they could, before leaving the building. One resident tried to extinguish one of these fires while it was still small, but he did not know how to operate the fire extinguisher which he found.

The first of several 999 calls were made to the London Fire Brigade at 03:32 and received by the local fire station, A21, Paddington who were ordered to the scene along with neighbouring A22, Manchester Square and G26 Belsize, bringing the first attendance of 4 pumping appliances – 2 carrying the heavy but stable 50 foot (15m) wheeled escape ladders, a 100 ft (30m) turntable ladder (aerial) and an emergency tender (for the breathing apparatus (BA) sets carried, the wearing of which was then still a specialist skill).

On arrival, a chaotic scene greeted the senior officer, a serious fire in progress and numerous persons needing rescue. A priority message was made to control and a “Make pumps 8” message was sent (requesting a further 4 pumping appliances in addition to the original 4) within minutes of first arriving, whilst rescues (the priority) were being affected from both the front and rear of the building. Access was impeded by parked cars. Further reinforcements were requested, first to 15 pumps, and then 20, and finally 30 with a further 2 turntable ladders requested.

During the next hour, the building structure began to deteriorate as floors and roof structures became affected by fire. This was particularly apparent in house numbers 13, 15, and 17, the worst affected. Many of the internal stairways were stone and when heated by the fire and then suddenly cooled by water collapsed making internal movement through the building awkward and potentially hazardous.

As further crews arrived along with increasingly senior officers to direct operations and persons were accounted for, the operation moved from rescue to the fighting of the fire. Crews took hoses through the doors from the street and off ladders through the windows. One of these fire fighting crews made up of 3 men and a Station Officer, entered a second floor room to search out the seat of the fire. Whilst in the room, several floors above weakened by the extra load of the partially collapsed roof came down on the crew, the devastation seemingly concentrated on that one room. The release of the trapped men became the priority, with what proved to be a difficult and protracted rescue operation. One by one, 3 men were released (2 with serious burns and 1 with a serious back injury) before the body of the 4th man was found, who was declared dead at the scene.

The six other fatalities were residents on upper floors, which the fire had quickly spread to; their incinerated bodies were found after the fire was out.

The incident was the first major incident dealt with by the control room at Wembley since the commissioning of their computerised mobilising system that had only gone live earlier that week.

The final attendance involved 30 pumping appliances, 3 turntable ladders, 3 emergency tenders and other specialist vehicles such as hose layers for relaying water long distances, including the nearby Regents Canal at Little Venice. The “stop” message (= "incident under control") was despatched at 07:30 that morning, but damping down and standby attendance went on for some days. The incident proved to be the largest fire in Central London that year, and resulted in one of the largest number of fire brigade bravery commendations from a single incident.

The breathing apparatus mostly used had breathing bag, oxygen cylinder, mouthpiece, nose clip, and separate eyes-only goggles, and from the description appears to be the Siebe Gorman Proto industrial oxygen rebreather, which was much used by fire brigades and in mine rescue around that time. A compressed-air breathing set was mentioned once.

Aftermath

A kitchen porter, Edward Mansfield, aged 41, was charged at the Old Bailey on 10 July 1975, with three cases of arson (one at the Worsley Hotel on 13 December and two at the Piccadilly Hotel on 19 and 29 December) and the murders of seven people, including a fireman, at the Worsley Hotel. He pleaded not guilty. On 23 July the jury failed to reach the required majority verdict and were discharged. The re-trial of Mansfield at the Old Bailey on the same charges began on 12 November 1975. John Mathew was again the prosecuting counsel. It ended on 1 December. Mansfield was found guilty of the manslaughter of seven people, including Fireman Pettit, and of three charges of arson. He was gaoled for life.

The building was re-built after the fire as maisonettes and still stands today although it does not carry the name.

Notes and references

Red Watch, a book by Gordon Honeycombe, publ. 1976, 1977, revised in 1985, ISBN 0 09 914230 9

Hotel

Fire

Aftermath

Notes and references

Further reading