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Gas explosion on Effingham Rd in October 1973.

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I remember my dad coming home from work and telling us about it. He worked in The Vulcan Foundry - Oxley's on Saville St. I remember him saying how they were showered with years of muck from the rafters and roof of the foundry. He died in '77, so it was a few years before that.

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Hi folks, I remember this incident rather too well I'm afraid - I was a serving firefighter at Sheffield Central and we turned out to it at 11.32am on Wednesday 24th October 1973. Bricks, concrete and dust everywhere. We were ordered to look for 6 missing workmen. We pretty soon found them in separate locations and in conditions that I couldn't describe here. One thrown through a factory roof; one underneath the crane he had been operating; a welder up on a nearby gas holder; one thrown against a brick wall; one in the roadway; one recovered from site. Six in all died and 20 further persons were treated at hospital and released.

Dismantling of iron and pipe work above an 'empty' underground tank 100 feet diameter by 20 feet deep was being carried out by a welding gang. Sparks ignited pockets of flammable distillates. As there was about 3 feet of reinforced concrete aver the tank, the resulting explosion was vastly more powerful.

For me it was a rude awakening to the job I had chosen

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I remember this although I must have only been about 4 at the time. I lived on Hyde Park Flats, the side that overlooked the gas tanks, and if I remember rightly it actually shattered some windows the blast was so massive!

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My wife said that her Dad was the Police Superintendent who was interviewed on TV for this, so it must have been 1973.

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Having just read the thread, I've been to quiz my Dad about the day the Gasometer blew up.

Fortunately, my Dad was in Derbyshire that morning, but when he got back to Sheffield, Effingham Road was closed, and he had to go via the 'dark arches; to get back to Swift Levicks, where he worked. Hedley Green, had already repaired the damage to my dad's car. The car had been parked in the carpark of the North Pole pub, and was the only one hit by the flying debris. A black, piece of masonary had gone straight through his windscreen, I think we still have it somewhere in the loft, and the last time I came across it, I can remember stating it still smelled of 'gas'!!

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i work just across the canal and you can still see where the gasometer was the roof of our unit (sipelia works) show some repair work to the rafters i'll assume this was caused by flying debris coming through the roof as we're only about 50 yds away i'd be very interested if anyone has any pics or links to pics of the disaster.thanks .on a seperate note i'd love to get onto the top of the remaining gasometer when it's at full height to take some pics is there any where i can apply to? i know people might think this is a bit weird but on a website about gasometers it said that transco wanted to do away with them altogether within 10 yrs and i just wanted to get a few pics that nobody else would get...YES i know i'm sad but ?

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My father Herbert Hall was in charge of a party of contractors on the Effingham Street Gasworks Site and they were dismantling a gas holder at the time of the explosion. He himself had left the site to buy new tools and he returned find utter chaos. He lost a few friends that day. He would never talk about it though.

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I remember going past the bottom of gower street after the explosion and seeing cars at a secondhand car dealers covered in rocks and debris and that must have been over half a mile away from effingham road

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Have read all the posts on this tragedy and sadly a lot are inaccurate. Could it be that through a sheer fluke I was the only witness to see the thing actually blow up before my very eyes? To the person who said he didn’t think it was much then think again.

 

i was on the top floor of Bedford’s on Bernard rd looking over towards the tanks, I remember it being a fine sunny day and all windows on that floor were wide open on the back of the building. Suddenly there was a gigantic blast then what seemed to be a two second pause then all the windows were blown shut. The explosion threw the whole structure girders and all on a ball of black smoke and dark red flame around I would say a hundred yards into the air, then suddenly  went back down again. I stood there not really believing what I had just seen as I was in shock. A while later I witnessed the shocking pathetic  sight of desperate rescuers scrambling up the side steps of the second tank where one or two of the men’s bodies had been thrown and stuck to the tank. I knew then it would have been a miracle if they had survived the blast.

i suppose I should have gone to the police to tell my story then but wrongly assumed that loads must have seen it happen apart from myself. It must have been the shock . Even after all these years I only told my wife what I saw until now.

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16 minutes ago, Thomas micha said:

Have read all the posts on this tragedy and sadly a lot are inaccurate. Could it be that through a sheer fluke I was the only witness to see the thing actually blow up before my very eyes? To the person who said he didn’t think it was much then think again.

 

i was on the top floor of Bedford’s on Bernard rd looking over towards the tanks, I remember it being a fine sunny day and all windows on that floor were wide open on the back of the building. Suddenly there was a gigantic blast then what seemed to be a two second pause then all the windows were blown shut. The explosion threw the whole structure girders and all on a ball of black smoke and dark red flame around I would say a hundred yards into the air, then suddenly  went back down again. I stood there not really believing what I had just seen as I was in shock. A while later I witnessed the shocking pathetic  sight of desperate rescuers scrambling up the side steps of the second tank where one or two of the men’s bodies had been thrown and stuck to the tank. I knew then it would have been a miracle if they had survived the blast.

i suppose I should have gone to the police to tell my story then but wrongly assumed that loads must have seen it happen apart from myself. It must have been the shock . Even after all these years I only told my wife what I saw until now.

A good friend of mine was working in a factory nearby. Not sure what but grinding of some sort i think. He told me how the machines they were working on at the time of the explosion were ripped out of the floor, captive bolts an all.

 

 

 

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On ‎18‎/‎01‎/‎2005 at 21:41, pitsmoorboy said:

The gas explosion in Effingam Rd. was 1973 one of my mates dad was killed Mr. Lomas. cycleracer must be a mate of John or his younger brother Keith. they have a sister called Marie or Denise. not sure which. The one up Pye Bank was around 78 if I remember right. My mate Tony Heathcote was living next door to it.

Sorry it's took me 13 years to reply to this and your right I was with Keith Lomas on the day it happened it was a surprisingly warm day for late October and we were sat on the grass at Hinde House when a teacher came to us and asked Keith to go into the school.

I knew something was wrong but didn't know what and for obvious reason he did not come back out.

It is one of those days in life you never forget.

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