By the way, my friend Disasterthon has covered this incident, too - take a look at their video for some archive footage of the fire itself, and a bit about the memorial, which was only recently put in place: th-cam.com/video/w7hHkvhOdJ4/w-d-xo.html
That's why fire alarms now have a special fire resistant cables such as Flame-X in the UK also after the Kings Cross underground fire disaster in 1987 many people were killed by toxic fumes from the burning sheath (insulation) on power cables, cables can now be specified with low smoke zero halogen (LSZH) insulation that greatly reduces toxic smoke.
It's right up there with "survivors almost drowned by the fire suppression". Not even kidding, there have been people who've survived building collapses, only to nearly be drowned by sprinklers as they lay pinned by the rubble.
I heard about a theater fire that was partially fanned because an employee propped a door with a fire extinguisher. It's not surprising to me, but it is sad.
Electrical Engineer here who is currently working on a family entertainment center that seats over 5000 people. After watching this video, I triple checked section 700 of the NEC to make sure my feeders were fitted for pathway survivability. This guy is out here straight making me a better engineer.
If a doctor screws up, one person may die. If an engineer screws up, it could lead to hundreds of fatalities. I'm glad to hear you take your profession seriously. Kudos to you!
This means designing the electrical system so that any systems that are required for notifying people of a fire or for evacuation, such as emergency lights and PA systems, are protected from the fire itself, so they will not be disabled when they need to function to provide for life safety.@@ironlionzion1380
My job as an MHE required me to pass NFPA 70E and NFPA 10 as well as become AED certified. These fires are no joke! I'm impressed by your commitment to safety!
This whole channel is honestly the strongest argument against deregulation that I've ever come across. For every person who goes all-in on safety features even when they're not required and regularly inspected, there's another guy going "eh, screw it, the sprinklers on the ceiling are gonna break the budget, how's the progress on the paper mache rollercoaster coming along" lmao
Against? Is that not a sign that sprinkles should be required? More regulation? Like actually have rules that companies have to follow instead of making it optional?
@@ACDBunnie Against DE-regulation, not against regulation. Savana’s comment seems in favor of keeping law to require certain safety protocols and procedures :)
Say what? Don’t you mean this example makes the case for REGULATION? Deregulation (small government) is policy implemented by Republicans which decreases standards and requirements, thereby putting cost savings and thus profits over people.
@@ACDBunnie Right more regulation is needed; not less. It’s sad that government rules are required to compel businesses to do the right thing. Deregulation always results in harm.
Reminds me of an episode of Law and Order SVU where a crime was being committed via livestream, but none of the watchers called police because they assumed someone else already did. It's called the bystander effect.
10:06 "The non-fireproof glass would soften and fall out of its framing, facilitating escape" I love how their plan in the event of a fire, apparently, was to have guests escape over piles of melting plastic on fire. As if that's not bad enough, the guests who were in the swimming pool likely wouldn't have been wearing shoes.
You have the carousel worker that fled with the ride still moving, then you have the staff member who doused himself in water so he could stay longer to help people
You never know what you will do in that situation, that's why there are so many drills, and practices. Some people may know they will do right, but a lot of other people have to learn.
Yes I was survivor of Summer land just 14 years old. I am glad people bring this to the attention of others there was virtually no way out and evacuation of the complex! Everything locked if it wasn't for 2 men smashing the glass which was beginning to melt I don't know! In those days there was no help or counseling afterwards I was very lucky with my wonderful family and we were on holiday!!
This was my swimming pool as a kid! (well, the post 1977 version). The place was like one huge fire escape - it had huge signs everywhere letting you know absolutely at all times exactly how to get out. Always found that strange as a kid
Painted signs on walls is not enough when there is black smoke so that you can't see anything. Even illuminated Exit signs are no use in a smoke filled environment. You need to mentally map out escape routes when you enter any building, plane, ship, theatre etc, and get out the second you sense danger.
this channel has taught me that i will probably die in an accident because someone cheaped out on something, and then afterwards nobody will even be held accountable for my death. the system works!
@@Lucas_Antar Because lawyers have been arguing for ages that designing, building and owning deathtraps is perfectly fine if it's not strictly forbidden by law.
@@BartSliggers and then prosecution lawyers will do the opposite. That's not how lawyers work dude. The real problem with lawyers are how expensive they are. Big corporations can afford good lawyers. The average person can't.
This channel reaffirmed my fire fighter's daughter training. Be aware of two exits. Know that being mobbed is as deadly as being trapped. If you can't get out get as many doors and walls between you and the fires. And at the end of the day your main job is to get you safe, then get others out. Do not stop to help unless you know your path is clear.
Yep certainly some could say some of the nature of multiple partners, rushed timetable, possible wrong / cheap materials used, vs money and budget with possible violations of building and fire regs repeated again (signed off ?) in Grenfell London Disaster of 2017 - RIP To 50 dead of Summerland & 72 from Grenfell.
@UCrCTz6oX1oJDX02P2HxvUMg Isle of Mann, an island in the Irish Sea, which is a crown dependency of the U.K. Not actually part of the U.K. Given how small it is it wouldn’t be surprising if corruption was off the scale.
Can't think of this disaster without tears. I was in the building that day, but had left an hour or two before. Such a shock to get back to our "digs" in Castletown and hear that Summerland was on fire. I'll never forget that day, but it makes me bitter that nobody was ever really held accountable. So many errors and possibly dubious practices. Some things never change.
@@paulm613 An interesting aside to all this is that a young man called Chris Mannion was entertaining that day. After the fire he went back to live with his mum, I think it was, in Eastbourne, and for some years became the town's resident pier entertainer. I often used to chat to him when working the town tours.
@paulm613 I have fond memories of Johnny Silver..my girlfriend and I had a wonderful holiday at Summerland in 1972. I was so shocked when news of the fire hit the media. Very sad day in our history even if the people of Douglas don't like to talk about it.
“There we’re no villains” Nah. Miss me with that nonsense. They made every safety fault imaginable with the intention of cutting costs. Any one of these issues on their own is an honest mistake; together, it’s clear that the park owners were fine risking their visitors’ lives in the name of margins.
If you shoot one person, you'll go to prison. If you kill a hundred people in one of these large facilities or on an airliner, you'll get a slap on the wrist.
A friend of mine had holidayed there the year before and had a great time. The family tried to book again for the first week in August 1973 but it was full. They managed to book for the first week in September. My mate realised how 'lucky' they had been to not be there when the fire hit. What an awful tragedy this was.
Does anyone know the name of the employee who doused himself in water so he could try and save people for longer? I’ve been trying to find stuff about him but no luck. He’s an incredible hero Sidenote, I know you must already do a lot of work but I’d love it if for these videos you could give us the sources you used for your research so we could read more about the events if we wanted
Whenever I hear about fire escape doors being chained shut I always remember the story my dad told me where at his place of work they had a fire drill and he drove a forklift through an emergency escape door that was chained shut. His boss was threatening to fire him for doing that, then was reminded of OSHA.
Someone ran away from their post at a kids’ ride without even taking a second to stop the machine or unbuckle them, leaving them trapped to die. I would like to personally fight the people who said, “there were no villains.”
Easy to judge a panicked person in fear of their life from the comfort of your home. People's brains stop thinking normally when their life is at stake. I doubt he intended to do that, he probably just reacted on his instincts
People often label the USA as a country that loves to sue. I think that's a good thing. It's makes any Company or Corp more responsible for their actions. Hit them where it hurts. What every makes them think about people's welfare the better.
@@nthgth but these are things that are often preventable if not for budget cuts, safety regulations being followed, downright negligence being uncovered, etc.
My dad, grandmother and great-grandmother were all survivors of this. My dad is still unable to talk about it, but my grandmother used to show me the scars from skin- graphs over her arms. I'm now wondering if that was from the melting plastic. Feels emotional to listen to one of these where it invovled your own family.
@Straw it's sad to read that her family suffered from this event when in reality people such as yourself are the ones who should instead, you're obviously robbing the rest of us from precious oxygen, please do something useful with your life.
The amount of fire accidents that include "They thought it was fireproof" and "The exits were closed so people couldn't sneak in" is staggering. Oh and not to forget: The corner cutting.
A reminder that in an emergency, we generally default to the level of our training. Part of the brain shuts down, and the other part takes over, and if you don't have appropriate training in what to do in case of an emergency, you might find that you've left a bunch of kids on a moving carousel because your brain in panic mode couldn't find a better pattern to follow than "GET OUT NOW". This is why fire drills and fire safety education is so crucial to staff of any sort of public venue.
Unless you're doing proper firefighter training in an empty burning building I highly doubt any fire safety training offered by the resort could prepare you for that.
@@Fireglo General principle more than for this specific instance -- this just illustrates how quickly panic throws every other consideration out the window, even things most people would consider important (like the lives of children). And the more widespread *basic* training is -- first aid, disaster preparedness, etc. -- the more effective it gets on a societal scale. Training for evacuation in the specific location you're in, that's important regardless. There's a reason that families are advised to hold fire drills with their kids in their own homes.
Farout that staff member is a hero, dousing themself in water to stay longer to catch children being thrown down. What an absolute nightmare scenario, and just imagine being one of the parents trying to throw your child in the hopes that they survive
Seems to be the lone staff member that had a freaking heart. The ones that didn't call the fire brigade should be punished for not doing so and this brave one should be rewarded.
@@adde9506 i think they were 'fined' to help reduce their guilt, they must feel terrible that they started the fire and to pay a fine would help i think
@@fioxeraviari5002 Would being fined $30 make you feel like you'd atoned for 50 deaths, or just be rubbing salt in the wound? Maybe if they were 4 instead of 14.
"..by a parked car outside the building. A car that, with horrible irony, belonged to Summerland's safety officer." I literally facepalmed. YOU HAD ONE JOB.
How can the investigation come to a conclusion that "nobody is to be blamed"? Can you fail more as a safety team member than blocking an exit with your vehicle?
Ahhh, the 1970’s, a family driving to this center in a car without anyone wearing seatbelts, no airbags, with the parents chain smoking while the kids are unbelted in the backseat with all the windows up. ……And all of this was before arriving at the death trap of a building.
I always hate when people are like, “we never had seatbelts and we all survived” no you did not ALL survive. Let’s hear from the folks who did not survive…oh, wait…
@@elizabethfallert1963 exactly. As a mom, I hear parents get this ALL the time for keeping their toddler rear facing in their car seat as long as possible and taking car seat safety seriously. “You and your siblings survived without one didn’t you?” Ya, and many children didn’t. It’s beyond me how something as life saving as car seats are seen as “extra” by some people in 2022.
Yeah and people - and young people! - are dying of cancer all over the place now, which didn't happen before and I remember when everyone smoked, everywhere and all the time. So why are cancers exploding? Oh because of cigarettes. But nobody smokes. (Thankfully people lost their sense of critical thinking now too. That's ''safe'' too.) If you knew all the toxic shit you are in contact with every single day, all around you, even the air quality in your house and caloric content of it (how fast it ignites, and how rigorously it burns), you'd be happy to return to the 70's.
With lax safety concern like this, and the normalization of pedophilia and grooming teen girls, I truly do not understand why people have fond nostolgia of the 70s. It sounds like absolute hell.
Yeah. Her and my father have stories of customers refusing to leave drinks even while the place was filling with smoke. I don’t if this part is true but my father (he was a barman in a nearby pub) mentioned that that the safety guy was in there A LOT before and after work. It’s just all really really sad
This happens so often - I think there should be a specific law against it. There's something missing from the justice system without it. As it is - chaining / welding fire exits falls under wishy-washy, weak deinition for crimes like "negligence." For owner criminal wrongdoing the charge is - "Usually, dropped, and they usually walk." Chaining fire exits should be an automatic Negligent Homicide charge in case of deaths. A jailable offense if found during inspection.
If you wanna get really pissed search up the nightclub fire in Rhode Island , my friend from middle schools uncle died in that fire cuz the bouncer told everyone to go to a Different exit cuz the “managers” Had locked the exit he was guarding (despite there being a raging fire he still wanted to follow his managers orders). People care more about their jobs and profits than other people’s lives unfortunately.
Human beings have been chaining/locking fire doors for "reasons" ever since we had the wherewithal to know buildings needed such a thing. Though, if you want really creepy and a sign of caring about profits above human life - look up the newer evidence for the fire onboard the Scandinavian Star, a ship that appears to have been set on fire repeatedly in one night in order to collect on millions in insurance (that was for more than the ship itself was worth). I can chalk up chained exits in the video above as complacency and not believing a tragedy of that magnitude would happen (along with a healthy mix of pride and stupidity), but the idea of setting a boat on fire and making sure it spreads with hundreds on board while out to sea for money is bone-chilling.
“Fascinating Horror” should cover the Our Lady of the Angels Fire, December 1, 1958, in Chicago. I lost 93 classmates and three nuns, one who managed to get some of the children to safety and went back one time too many. Every family in our neighborhood was touched, some lost all their children. And many survivors were horribly burned. A sad, sad day.
I lived in Milwaukee many years and have an odd fascination with things like this, and yet I've never heard of it. I wonder if any of the other channels might have something...
https: //th-cam.com/video/Dhjdgz3hVPU/w-d-xo.html (Omit the space after the colon when plugging this into your browser. I think it's the only way we can post a link to another video.)
My mother lived down the block when it happened......she said it was awful....she said the little girl that lived next door to her perished in the fire. 😢
The safety officer parked his car in front of the escape fire door , the carousel attendant ran off and left the kids on the ride for dead , same with the three that started the fire , the escape keys weren’t placed on the boxes they were supposed to be ... Jesus there was literally no safety regulations in the 70s.
It really is sad. The reason there are fire regulations is (usually) because lives have *already* been lost because such regulations weren't already in place. An inspector's job isn't to be a nuisance; it is, literally, to save lives!
Literally had a science teacher that pointed to a sprinkler above his desk that he had partially covered because he did lots of experiments on that desk and say "If you're dad is a fire inspector, don't tell him about this." That teacher also caused a small fire (as far as I'm aware nothing was damaged, and no one was hurt) a few years before...
Im currently an inspector, several of his videos go in depth on some of the incidents used in the current curriculum. Station nightclub, Cincinnati supper club, etc.
@@marymohr2799 we had actual plastic covers in our science classrooms that teachers were required to put on the smoke detectors and sprinklers before doing experiments because they didn’t want to “accidentally trigger” the fire alarms. I always thought it was insanely stupid and it didn’t make sense why they’d be required to put them up, but I started skipping experiment days anyway, since I’m terrified of fire lol.
My wife, young daughter and I were there for an event at the TT in 1973. It was a death trap, in retrospect. The escape doors into the pool area were chained shut then. Access was up narrow, twisting stairs inside and outside. I actually said to my wife as we left that it would be God help anyone trying to escape. We could very easily have been in the same boat as those who died.
Hi. My uncle was killed in the Summerland disaster. He was bar manager, do you have any more information please? His name was Keith Maceachern. Thank you.
@@linzisouthernwood482 none at all, I'm afraid. We were just over for the TT Races, saw the fire on TV later the same year and it made me remember things that hadn't fully registered before.
Accidental fires from cigarettes are so common, and especially back then, everyone was just smoking everywhere. Because of this, fire regulations are so desperately needed. Even if you think "what could possibly cause a fire here?", just one single stray person too stubborn to smoke somewhere else, that's all it takes. And you know it happens all the time. I remember seeing sprinklers all over the vacation park I visited last year, they didn't make the ceiling very pretty, but they are a matter of life and death in these places. Glad they're there.
I can't even imagine trying to escape and having the windows _melting_ on me. It always bothers me to hear about locked and chained doors in mass public venues. Weren't crash bars invented by that time?
@@grahvis There is a Fascinating Horror video called "The Victoria Hall Disaster" that covers the disaster that lead to the creation of Crash Bars; and that's back in the 19th Century.
I worked in the Dublin theater back in the 70's, and fire exits were regularly chained up. Scenery canvas was supposed to be fire-proofed, but it never was due to cost.
Crash bars, yes. But many venues at the time still chained them to keep people from sneaking their friends in through the back. Not sure if the door alarm for emergency doors was around yet as that seems to have solved that problem nowadays.
My next door neighbours got caught up in this, but managed to escape with nothing more than singed hair. Thanks for doing this, most have forgotten about it!
And the complex was only at a third capacity, thank God. 3000 instead of a possible 10,000 when it happened. Sliver of a silver lining, if that’s possible..
Sadly ... when comparing some of the catalogue of errors and the lack of accountability to what happened at Grenfell Tower it seems the lessons did disappear as quickly as Summerland II.
It was even worse than missed. Margaret Thatcher relaxed building regulations in what is referred to as "The Bonfire of Red Tape". These changes meant the cladding was rated "fireproof" based on a test in which a blowtorch is moved across 1m of the material over a period of 30 seconds. If it didn't catch then it was deemed fireproof. This change also took away the requirements regarding sprinkler systems. Not only did they have the lessons from Summerland, they actively made a tragedy like it inevitable. It's not a shock though, her party in more recent events voted against legislation which would require landlords to ensure houses are habitable. The Conservative party is filled with landlords, landlords who voted against the dictionary definition of a house. There is no creature more villainous than a tory MP, they'll kill a neighbourhood to save a few quid. Aneurin "Nye" Beavan, a leading figure in the foundation of the NHS and massive post-war reforms, put it best when he said, "No attempt at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred of the Tory Party, so far as I'm concerned they are lower than vermin".
Remembering the Summerland fire, the permitting of flammable cladding on buildings always shocked me. I never thought I'd see another such fire but then the horror of Grenfell Tower.
I understand how you feel. At least the regulations would make this stuff less likely to happen.... ...but it is sad it took people losing their lives in order for them to exist
What makes me sadder is that these fires happened years apart and yet all of the same mistakes kept getting repeated over and over. The lessons of Summerland clearly weren’t learned by enough people given that Beverly Hills Supper Club and that 1981 Dublin club fire happened
I’ve been a volunteer firefighter going on 13 years and I had my first experience with a fatal fire a few weeks ago. Two victims after a vehicle accident involving a semi. I didn’t sleep for two days. It was a week before I could close my eyes and not see the bodies. I went to fire training a few days ago and had to leave because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Just being in the station upset me. But I’m slowly getting better mentally but I never want to see anything like that ever again.
Fire is always a serious issue. I stepped out of my old apartment in 1995 and made my way down the sidewalk when I noticed someone lighting a bbq grill on his porch. I stopped walking forward and started back-peddling towards my apt. And just like I feared the charcoal, soaked in starter fluid, shot a flame 5 or 6 feet high and immediately set the floor of the porch on the 2and floor ablaze. I grabbed the phone from its base and dialed 911 as I went back out to observe and report. In less than 60 seconds the entire building was burning, it was eye-opening to see just what fire can do and with such quickness! The fire brigade arrived very fast and nobody was hurt, but the building itself was damaged quite a lot. Fire is fast and powerful, never underestimate what it can do.
I was in there the week before it burned down... My dad worried about safety due to the fire escapes being chained shut. So we only visited once. Thank goodness.
@@elizabethtyler3771 he did actually mention it to someone, my dad isn't the type of person not to.. He wasn't quiet in his opinions, I can assure you of that. , It was the 70s, life was very different then. We can only learn from the past, can't change it.
I suspect under reporting of the actual numbers. Like can you actually believe the numbers are 50 dead and 80 injured in a building that's supposed to hold 10,000 people?
I live on the Isle of man and this incident still haunts us as a community. As a child we used to go into areas of the building that still had the visable marks of the fire but were blocked off. It was knocked down many years ago now but you can still see the stair cases and parts of the building in the cliff behind. It is truly haunting
If I had heard it was just a "chip pan fire" I would have left on my own. Because even though it was a lie Ive seen a chip pan fire just go up in seconds because someone threw water on it.
Reminds me of the sewol, South Korean ferry disaster. Basically if there is a fire or some kinda danger in the building/vessel your in. Trust your instincts and get the heck out of there in the safest but fastest way possible.
@@emismpunk With the high schoolers? That was fucking infuriating. I have heard (though I am having difficulty finding English sources that confirm this) that a girl who lost both her parents in this disaster - AND HAS BEEN BULLIED BY HER CLASSMATES BECAUSE OF IT. Her uncle claims that she has had to change schools three times.
@@thepanpiper7715 yeah, that’s the one. Captain and crew told them to stay put while they made their own escapes. Pretty much only the ones that disobeyed ended up surviving. Same thing with the sampoong department store collapse. Owner was made aware of the immediate danger and high tailed it out of there without informing any of the customers. The building ended up killing slightly over 500 and injuring over 900 more.
My family visited a couple of weeks before the fire. It was difficult to get into from street level, having to go up several small circular flights of stairs, then across a concrete concourse to the main building. The entrance was small with turnstiles and barriers only letting one person a time in. We stayed in the main space for a while but it all seemed a bit disjointed and not well thought out. To get to anything you had to take a tortuous route on overhead walkways and after having some snacks and playing some games in the open area, the rain had stopped outside so we left. It was more difficult to get out due to the turnstiles etc, and after the disaster I often thought how scared people must have been trying to find each other and squeeze thru the small exits with all the other panicked people whilst molten plastic was falling on them.
I remember this happening, my cousin was staying with us at the time, and her 2 sisters were in the Isle of Man, we were all really worried that they had been in the building. No mobile phones in those days, it was a while before we heard from our cousins that they were OK. The news programs covered it for weeks, really horrific.
A recurring theme in these disaster stories is that the wealthy investors who repeatedly put profits before people’s lives - invariably walk away without a single consequence.
These muther EFFERS who called their enterprise "SUMMERLAND" should have been SUED out of EXISTENCE. There NEVER should have been another "Summerland" constructed, let alone existed for another 30 years, because they shouldn't have been able to AFFORD to do so. You wanna talk about CHARITY? CHARITY is a billionaire who spends millions on a class-action lawsuit with lawyers who will vow to fight until both "Summerland, Inc." (or whatever the entertainment corp. called itself) and all four or five construction companies are bankrupt...Or at the very least become financially paralyzed and unable to operate as a business. IF they should claim insolvency, the victims should be granted EQUITY in each of the four or so companies and split the equity remaining in "Summerland," et al. after they were forced to cash out. THAT is what GOOD people with billions extra to spend in the world SHOULD DO to properly wield their power and create a significant, effective legacy for themselves. But of course that won't happen. Instead, let's fool around with outer space toys and other goofy, unnecessary machinery... >:-(
I suppose it's the perfect place for a serial killer to hide, if you want to kill lots of people and get away with it, just cause an industrial accident as CEO of a company.
@@larkefedifero unfortunately British law doesn't allow for that, and outer space toys are the only thing that will keep the human race alive in 100 years.
As a child you learn about fire safety with strict rules like "don't run, walk", "the priority is to get yourself out safely", "never go back into a burning building" and "remain calm". it's heartbreaking to learn about the incidents that inspire these rules
When I was a child, there were many videos I saw on safety. Even cartoons had safety messages in them. That was in the 80s, I don't know if the same remains true.
@@JaidenJimenez86 As an American born in the 90's, I can't say that I ever remember watching a fire-safety video other than Smokey the Bear, but that was about forest fires, not building fire evacuation or safety.
@@justinecamille7426 born very late 80s and a child of the 90s. We had something like a small trailer park house thing that we got put in and smoke would fill up the rooms and the rooms ceiling was pretty low so you couldn't stand and had to crawl. It taught us how to evacuate a house fire. Pretty cool and fun. But where I lived it was still a kinda small townish place so I guess they could spend the money for that then. I remember seeing a ton of fire safety commercials. .. maybe it depended on where you grew up..
@@JaidenJimenez86 as someone who was a kid in the 2000s, we had a LOT of fire safety stuff. yearly throughout elementary school we were taught what to do. i genuinely was convinced fires were a common occurrence and i’d catch on fire like once a week
My grandparents had visited Summerland the day before the fire and were still in the Isle of Man when it happened. It's sobering to think that if they had been in there on the day of the disaster I may never have known them. I'd heard the story many times growing up and a couple of years ago even wrote a song about the disaster as I somehow feel connected. Such a tragedy.
This delights me. (Your whole channel makes me happy; I have trainwreck syndrome and am a compulsive researcher, and having documentaries like these which highlight particular disasters available to get other people interested in them is wonderful.) I wrote up Summerland myself years ago and the thing that struck me most about the whole gigantic mess was the disconnect between the two architects/architectural firms -- and the fact that Oroglas's manufacturers themselves knew the stuff was flammable, an internal memo even pointing out that the stuff could burn "in quite a frightening manner" -- and yet everyone sort of just looked the other way. Brilliant work.
They used a similar acrylic product in the construction of the "Biosphere" at the Montreal Expo '67. They KNEW how flammable it was, so they ensured there were enough emergency exits available in case they had to evacuate quickly. They limited the number of visitors who could be inside the structure at one time. Personnel dedicated to "fire watch" were always present in the structure, ready to sound the alarm. On 20 May 1976, a welder ignited a fire, and the structure burned spectacularly in just 30 minutes.
It's funny how whenever crass negligence happens and dozens of people die it's "never anyone's fault". Sheer human stupidity and evil at work once more.
And safety design. A lot of theaters used to be like that...no emergency exits. Takes a disaster to get anything to change. Remember the Triangle Shirt Waist Company in NYC?
Very well done documentary. My dad went on a family trip there a couple of days before for his 8th birthday and it's crazy to think how lucky he was that he avoided the tragedy by just a handful of days. Rest in peace to all the victims :( and my heart goes out to all of the survivors.
We were supposed to go there that day but didn't go because 4 year old me wasn't feeling well. That night, while watching the news in our hotel on the other side of the Isle of Man, we were shocked when we saw the footage of the fire. So glad we didn't go when we were supposed to.
Just like how the doors here were locked to keep people from sneaking in, the same kind of thing happened at the Stardust nightclub fire here in ireland. My dad was a young adult when this happened and he is very particular about fire safety since. The club was dark and it was too late before the smoke was noticed and the was a stampede to the front door because the fire door was locked to stop people sneaking in. My dad was in another place a few weeks after and e checked the fire door, heres a giant lock and chain on the door. Bouncer came over and told my dad to leave it alone. My dad said why is it locked? Same reason as alwasys. My dad brought up Stardust and said it would be very bad if someone brought the fire Marshall into it and the bouncer cut the lock right in front of him. so stupid and so many people have died because they don't want to lose money instead of hiring better security guards.
I was in a bar years after The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, USA. One of the signed emergency exits off the main part of the room had a trash can in front of it to stop people from using it, and the door was locked with no way to open it without the key. I insisted that the manager unlock it. He was defiant at first, insisting that if there was a fire that people could leave via the (narrow) entrance we came in through. I told him that wasn't good enough, that it's a signed emergency exit and it needs to be unlocked. He scoffed at me, "What, are you the fire marshal or something?" I immediately replied, "No, but I'll be happy to call him right now if you'd like." He unlocked the door.
there was a video i watched recently by Qxir about it, really rough stuff. Good on your dad for standing up for what he knew was right in that other club
this just unlocked a memory of my dad - who is a fireman- yelling at hotel staff for locking the fire exits in the pool area. we just wanted to crack it open because it was hot in there and it ended up a big deal because that’s the fucking fire exit that had glass that couldn’t even be broken.
my dad was an isle of man local, i remember him talking about the dripping roof and thick black smoke from the plastic when we went back to (illegally) look around the property some time in 2011, thank you so much for covering this it was great to hear what happened in detail and not just vague stuff my dad remembers.
Fire genuinely is the most terrifying thing cause people just don't seem to grasp how insidious it is. My mate burnt down his mother's house by falling asleep with just one candle lit. The curtains caught the flame and next thing he woke up and the walls were all on fire. He said the only thing that saved his life was that he had cleaned his room earlier in the day so there were no clothes and rubbish littering the floor, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get out cause they would have caught too. Fire is no joke, once it catches it really catches!
Fire is my worst nightmare, literally. Every night before bed I clear the walkways in my house (and I also turn off all power points for safety) so if I wake to find my house ablaze I can grab my little girls and my wife and bail the fuck out as quick as possible. I'm in a two storey house with small windows (it's a fucking shithole) so there are only a very few exits. Jesus, I'm getting anxiety just thinking about it.
@@RA75AK yeah it's terrifying, I live in the top flat where there's only one exit and the flat directly below me are forever burning scented candles and incense. If they started a fire and it spread to the hallway (runs along the entire length of their flat) my only way out is to jump out the window and hope not to break too many bones on landing.
I find myself planning a fire exit inside my head everywhere we go. Feel so bad for people who pass away like this. Last minutes being absolutely horrific.
I know an ex-fireman who now teaches fire safety to staff of businesses and hotels and he told me that when he is anywhere on vacation he makes himself and his family, do an actual fire exit walk. Like in a hotel he would walk from his room to the fire exit with his family a few times so if something happens it has already become somewhat of a familiar route :) I thought that was a great idea and it may seem a bit paranoid but it really does not take a lot of time to do at all. Now I also plan my exit wherever I go in an unknown building :) (or plane)
Except the problem is, noting the fire exists and then finding them chained closed and/or without keys in this case. It's really shameful that no one was held accountable for all these negligent homicides.
They studied this after 9/11 using records from air accident records. People who survive catastrophic accidents are likely to have a plan of how to exit or have lived through something similar. Apparently if the brain has nothing to go to in the situation it just doesn't do anything. People will just sit in their seats or while the plane burns. The article was fascinating and now I always have a plan.
I'm a former firefighter & ex-military. My wife thinks I'm crazy (well I am an American she's probably right) anytime we go anywhere I look for exits, in hotels I find the stairwells, counting doorways between our room and them. Last place we stayed the door next to our room was the stairwell. I used it over the elevator when I was going up or down alone.
This is truly horrifying m!! Especially if you were there and split up from your children... i would 100% be panic searching for them rather than evacuating. Can't imagine the terror :((((
You’d likely die , if you teach your children to evacuate and they do, and you evacuate then all should escape ( hopefully, not sure in that place if that works, in any case I’m the idiot that runs inside to help)
All I have to say is mad kudos to those staff members that stayed behind to help, that takes a lot of balls. All I have to say is TEACH YOURSELF AND YOUR CHILDREN PROPER FIRE SAFETY
This is common in UK. In my company is no sprinkler system for this reason, company paying extra insurance because of this. And we working with a bit flammable materials ;) Because company policy i cannot say any more details.
Maybe you could make a video about the Sampoong mall collapse in Korea sometime? It was a pretty big disaster, and I feel like a lot of people don't know about it.
The "Well there's your problem" podcast did this as one of their first episodes if you interested in an engineering perspective and aren't put off by the hosts taking pop-shots at capitalism. Or Train People. They are very devout Train People.
Oh my goodness didn’t even know this 😟 It’s a mix of the 70’s film Towering Inferno and the flammable plastic from the Grenville Towers fire in London a few years back
I remember after the fire, me and my dad drove past on the way to see my grandparents, and there were stretchers leaning up outside along the wall. The stretchers were blackened and greasy, and looking not unlike paper towels that held barbequed meat. That image has never left me.
My mum saw this happen from her stay-room window, aged 4 when she was on holiday with her mum. She’d been inside the building earlier that day but they had gone back because it would be her bed time soon. Such an unfortunate tragedy.
@@vxlley_flower5672 thank you. So am I. Things could have ended very differently and my heart goes out to all of the people who sadly did loose a loved one
I don't know if it's just me, but my stomach dropped when they mentioned young children being left trapped on the fairground rides during the fire - after the ride operators fled without switching them off or letting them out - and nearby adults having to climb on while they were still going to rescue them. Even the very thought of that happening in the midst of a massive inferno is beyond horrifying.
Would be a horrifying and poignant image (if someone had taken a photo): a bunch of 2- to 8-year-olds on a ride, crying and screaming as the smoke and flames get closer.... I kind of hope that coward wasn't one of the survivors. We don't need more people like that in this world.
I saw it. We were on holiday there. I was eleven years old. We were at the amusement arcade up on Douglas Head. As we watched it burn, we had no idea that people had died. The horses from the horse trams were unharnessed and reared in fear. Next day was Friday, the last day of our holiday. The local radio station played sad music all day. We tried to phone our family in Liverpool to reassure them, but the phone lines were jammed - early 1970s, remember. They were so worried. My Dad hated Summerland because it was such an ugly modern building. I was a daddy's girl. That stopped me wanting to go there.
I live in South Korea and it would be amazing if you could cover the collapse of the Sampoong department store in 1995. It has always horrified and fascinated me. I LOVE your videos!
My Mum was staying up the road in a hotel with her husband. They were on their way to Summerland when they saw people starting to run out screaming. It wasn't long before they saw it in flames. She was also a passenger on the Herald of Free Enterprise the day before it sank which you've also talked about. She had some very narrow brushes with disaster. It's so strange to have grown up with these stories and then see videos with photographs and back story, really scary.
I know the feeling, my mother missed one of the trains that blew up in the 7/7 London Underground bombings. She'd stopped to make sure her card was put away properly after going through the barriers and thus had missed it, she wasn't in a rush to catch it anyway since tubes are like every couple of minutes and she had tons of time to get to work.
Growing up in the States I always wondered why fire safety equipment and training was so abundant despite never witnessing a building fire. Now I get it
Chicago fire. Fire doors opened inwards. A horror. So all doors open out in the US now, with automatic latches on fire doors which open if you lean on them. In the UK the security people get annoyed if you use a Ford door! Not so in the US.
Yeah exactly. When it can be THIS bad just once, it becomes clear why it needs to be (seemingly) over-emphasized. I know I didn't always take it as seriously as I now think I should.
My parents, brother and I had been in there that day. Came out of ‘Live and Let Die’ (I think) to see the fire at the other end of the bay. Left on ferry a day or so later
As a kid I remember burning myself pretty bad after trying to melt an action figure...I can't imagine how awful it would be to have giant, melting pieces of plastic raining down on you as you're trying to escape certain death.
@@roncheaters "Cauterising" kinda doesn't help when the wound itself is the burn caused. Removing melted plastic from skin is a major, major problem - it's why you see those goofy looking scissors on firefighters and EMTs, because in a world of clothing that's largely plastic, you have to cut around where clothes have melted to skin in case of a fire/grease burn/etc because if you try to just remove the burned clothing, you're likely to take the patient's skin with it. Burns are no joke. Regardless of the cause. Severe enough, and your body loses the ability to regulate temperature, and...it's still a wound. It may not BLEED per se, but you are going to lose fluids and have some pretty crazy bodily responses to it.
@@Spoopybug it is no joke I got a whiff of steam coming from the industrial baking oven in my face, luckily i turn my head quickly and got the side of my right cheek and neck burn (i forgot about the rule that i have to stay behind the door to let the steam go first) It immediately start to look like it bubbling, it left a mark on my face for two week, feel sore every single moment The whole thing happen in just 1s, i caught like 10% of that steam coming out since i yank my head back immediately but fuck me it look awful
as a kid I use to burn a little green army men out of curiosity. Until that stuff dripped on my skin. It doesn’t stop burning until it wants to. It gets imbedded into your flesh and you have to dig it out. I stopped burning army men after that.
As soon as he said the building was made with plastic, I knew what was going to happen. As a welder, you're told to never wear synthetic material at work because it melts like napalm. What senseless suffering.
Glass wouldn't melt in a building fire. Glass melts at 1300 C, the temp of a building fire would be less than 800 C. That glass they talk about is clear plastic.
@@MolecularMachine but, but, but, it's a MODERN material, it's designed for beauty, cost effectiveness, and according to all standing safety standards (meaning it's solid enough that bumping into it won't tear it).
I remember when someone did a showcase of Summerland at UCM (the college) in Douglas for the art gallery and after the video, it had all the names with photos of the victims (like school pictures/family photos) and it was heart-wrenching
I remember this horrible disaster. There was a rumour at the time that workmen constructing Summerland would use some of the window materials to start small fires (in order to keep warm). It was known beforehand that there were highly flammable products incorporated in the structure of the building.
I used to work as a machinist making polymer parts for the medical industry. We worked with a lot of cyanoacrylic (much like the solid form of super glue) and people would regularly take bits of it home to start bonfires and such because of how highly flammable it was. That was until they were discussing this with someone who actually understood the material and it was pointed out that burning this stuff released cyanide gas into the air. Not quite the same thing but this comment reminded me of that. We aren't always the brightest species
The worse part for the people was probably trying to find their children in the crowded pools or on another level!!! I could never have just run out of the building without knowing where my family was!
Same, but I guess that's why it's so important to have staff trained on proper evacuation and to get the fire department there ASAP. Direct people to get out in an orderly fashion and you would be able to find your family members fast.
@Vicar Amelia my mom had to do this with me as a kid. I would have never gone outside without knowing she was safe even as a kid so Im glad she decided to have that talk with me. She also played a game when we would go into a store or any building for that matter, where I would find all the exits. This has come in handy as an adult.
Quite amazingly I'd never even heard of this disaster even though I was a kid at the time; it's even more amazing to me that no-one has ever made a TV drama series of it, along the lines of Chernobyl.
my sister was nearly in that blaze. My parents and sister were holidaying there and were having dinner down the street. My sister wanted to meet a few friends she had made there and go to Summerland as it was their last night there. Daddy said no, that she has been there every evening and this time she could go later but they were going to have dinner together first. A few mins after their dinner came they heard sirens and saw smoke and people running up the street when they leaned out the window. At least one of the friends she made didn't make it out alive that night 😔
This incident has so many similarities to the movie "The Towering Inferno" that was released around the same time. The son-in-law played by Richard Chamberlain says famously in that film "When I brought the construction costs in under budget, nobody complained that I was cutting corners. They were all thanking me for doing such a great job."
@@JohnDoe-bf1fw I don't remember that part, but I do remember when McQueen tells Newman " One of these days, these 100 story high buildings are going to kill 10 thousand people"
I couldn't imagine being a kid riding a carousel with like a sibling or friend for a fire to start, and the adult who is a operator, leave you for dead.
tbh though you cant blame them fully yes they are also equally responsible for the tragedy but even the hotel owners to and on more thing why in the 70s shutting exits so common like why
I remember visiting Summerland when we visited Howstrake Holiday camp in 1972. I seem to recall it was a fantastic treat and really felt like a modern - almost futuristic - leisure centre It was my family's one and only visit to the Isle of man I was 13 when this disaster happened so wasn't an avid viewer of the news, and this is the very first time I have heard of it.
![จบจนได้ ! | Black Myth: Wukong #007 [ตอนจบ?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DSqvWndF0sw/mqdefault.jpg)
By the way, my friend Disasterthon has covered this incident, too - take a look at their video for some archive footage of the fire itself, and a bit about the memorial, which was only recently put in place: th-cam.com/video/w7hHkvhOdJ4/w-d-xo.html
I really like the way that communities of youtubers promote each other.
Thanks mate!:)
Thank you.
perhaps you could cover the Grenfel tower fire from a few years ago?
Awesome man, thank you for that. I will check it out
‘The fire burned through the fire alarms before they could go off’ that just feels like a terrible terrible joke
It seems to come up again and again in tales of building fires. :(
Yeah, you’d think such a fatal flaw would be something that could be designed around. Bet it’s money’s fault it’s not
That's why fire alarms now have a special fire resistant cables such as Flame-X in the UK also after the Kings Cross underground fire disaster in 1987 many people were killed by toxic fumes from the burning sheath (insulation) on power cables, cables can now be specified with low smoke zero halogen (LSZH) insulation that greatly reduces toxic smoke.
It's right up there with "survivors almost drowned by the fire suppression". Not even kidding, there have been people who've survived building collapses, only to nearly be drowned by sprinklers as they lay pinned by the rubble.
If you wait long enough, all electrics and alarms will be destroyed. Best to hit the button while the building is still standing.
“A parked car blocked the fire exit...it was the safety officer’s car”
You really can’t make that shit up. Just wow.
I heard about a theater fire that was partially fanned because an employee propped a door with a fire extinguisher. It's not surprising to me, but it is sad.
And people complain sarcastically about “elf and safety”. All hilarious until they’re trapped in a fire.
The worst airplane crash in history was
1977. KLM • Pan Am 747s head on collision
Caused by the safety officer of KLM
"Hey you can't park there!", ..."it's okay, I'm the safety officer!"
@@RudolfJvVuuren 50 dead. Yikes
Electrical Engineer here who is currently working on a family entertainment center that seats over 5000 people. After watching this video, I triple checked section 700 of the NEC to make sure my feeders were fitted for pathway survivability. This guy is out here straight making me a better engineer.
If a doctor screws up, one person may die. If an engineer screws up, it could lead to hundreds of fatalities. I'm glad to hear you take your profession seriously. Kudos to you!
Good on you, but can you please translate that into plain English so that laymen like me could understand?
This means designing the electrical system so that any systems that are required for notifying people of a fire or for evacuation, such as emergency lights and PA systems, are protected from the fire itself, so they will not be disabled when they need to function to provide for life safety.@@ironlionzion1380
Yeah right 😂
My job as an MHE required me to pass NFPA 70E and NFPA 10 as well as become AED certified. These fires are no joke! I'm impressed by your commitment to safety!
This whole channel is honestly the strongest argument against deregulation that I've ever come across. For every person who goes all-in on safety features even when they're not required and regularly inspected, there's another guy going "eh, screw it, the sprinklers on the ceiling are gonna break the budget, how's the progress on the paper mache rollercoaster coming along" lmao
Against? Is that not a sign that sprinkles should be required? More regulation? Like actually have rules that companies have to follow instead of making it optional?
@@ACDBunnie Against DE-regulation, not against regulation. Savana’s comment seems in favor of keeping law to require certain safety protocols and procedures :)
But my freedom to kill is more important
Say what? Don’t you mean this example makes the case for REGULATION? Deregulation (small government) is policy implemented by Republicans which decreases standards and requirements, thereby putting cost savings and thus profits over people.
@@ACDBunnie Right more regulation is needed; not less. It’s sad that government rules are required to compel businesses to do the right thing. Deregulation always results in harm.
At this point Fascinating Horror could make a playlist entitled "Fires in 'Fireproof' Structures"
Floods in "waterproof" structures
If I hear something is fireproof, unsinkable, unfloodable or any other un, i am staying the fuck away
@@Aoskar95 agreed
Indeed 😥🤦♀️
Lmao facts!
PSA for anyone watching: Confused about whose job it is to call the fire brigade? If you're in or near a burning building, it's your job.
And, it’s always better to be overkill (call even though a dozen people already have) than ignore it
And all those people had cell phones back then!
@@8bitorgy there were still land lines and pay phones calls were free to emergency services I believe
Reminds me of an episode of Law and Order SVU where a crime was being committed via livestream, but none of the watchers called police because they assumed someone else already did. It's called the bystander effect.
@@AzarathsFlame And that is why some US states have Good Samaritan Laws ...
10:06 "The non-fireproof glass would soften and fall out of its framing, facilitating escape" I love how their plan in the event of a fire, apparently, was to have guests escape over piles of melting plastic on fire. As if that's not bad enough, the guests who were in the swimming pool likely wouldn't have been wearing shoes.
Don't forget you can crawl out of a roof that has collapsed too. So no problem with bad construction practices.
That has to be one of the dumbest fire escape protocols in history.
It's called not thinking a problem through! So many people today don't think things through to their logical conclusion.
The swimming pool actually survived.
This happened in 1973 Thomas
To the man who doused himself in water so he could stay in there building longer to help people, we salute you. You were one of the good ones.
You have the carousel worker that fled with the ride still moving, then you have the staff member who doused himself in water so he could stay longer to help people
The duality of man
Also the guy in charge of facility safety parked HIS car in front of the emergency exit. Brilliant.
Should be a 30' tall bronze statue in his honor at the memorial site.
The one guy's self preservation instincts kicked in a little too well.
You never know what you will do in that situation, that's why there are so many drills, and practices. Some people may know they will do right, but a lot of other people have to learn.
1:30 “Set the architectural world alight.” Followed by the loudest pause I’ve ever heard.
Lmao
...timing is everything
😐
badum tiss!
I KNOW YIKES
Yes I was survivor of Summer land just 14 years old. I am glad people bring this to the attention of others there was virtually no way out and evacuation of the complex! Everything locked if it wasn't for 2 men smashing the glass which was beginning to melt I don't know! In those days there was no help or counseling afterwards I was very lucky with my wonderful family and we were on holiday!!
Wow, I could not imagine.
That must have been absolutely terrifying.
This was my swimming pool as a kid! (well, the post 1977 version). The place was like one huge fire escape - it had huge signs everywhere letting you know absolutely at all times exactly how to get out. Always found that strange as a kid
Painted signs on walls is not enough when there is black smoke so that you can't see anything. Even illuminated Exit signs are no use in a smoke filled environment. You need to mentally map out escape routes when you enter any building, plane, ship, theatre etc, and get out the second you sense danger.
this channel has taught me that i will probably die in an accident because someone cheaped out on something, and then afterwards nobody will even be held accountable for my death. the system works!
This is why we have so many OSHA rules and building codes now. We ain’t fucking around anymore.
@@Lucas_Antar Because lawyers have been arguing for ages that designing, building and owning deathtraps is perfectly fine if it's not strictly forbidden by law.
@@BartSliggers and then prosecution lawyers will do the opposite. That's not how lawyers work dude. The real problem with lawyers are how expensive they are. Big corporations can afford good lawyers. The average person can't.
LOL
This channel reaffirmed my fire fighter's daughter training. Be aware of two exits. Know that being mobbed is as deadly as being trapped. If you can't get out get as many doors and walls between you and the fires. And at the end of the day your main job is to get you safe, then get others out. Do not stop to help unless you know your path is clear.
Given the missing keys and a fire door partially blocked by their parked car, suggests that the Safety Officer was appallingly incompetent.
He was just the cheapest one to bribe
Yep certainly some could say some of the nature of multiple partners, rushed timetable, possible wrong / cheap materials used, vs money and budget with possible violations of building and fire regs repeated again (signed off ?) in Grenfell London Disaster of 2017 - RIP To 50 dead of Summerland & 72 from Grenfell.
I was born there.. endemic nepotism, financial shenanigans, medical and legal incompetence are all on an african level in I.O.M.
In my experience, the head of safety is the least safe person on premises.
@UCrCTz6oX1oJDX02P2HxvUMg
Isle of Mann, an island in the Irish Sea, which is a crown dependency of the U.K. Not actually part of the U.K. Given how small it is it wouldn’t be surprising if corruption was off the scale.
Can't think of this disaster without tears. I was in the building that day, but had left an hour or two before. Such a shock to get back to our "digs" in Castletown and hear that Summerland was on fire. I'll never forget that day, but it makes me bitter that nobody was ever really held accountable. So many errors and possibly dubious practices. Some things never change.
And today, the people who reviewed this put the fire as a misadventure
We either played together on or by the Stage with DJ Johnny Silver or passed each other that day.
@@paulm613 An interesting aside to all this is that a young man called Chris Mannion was entertaining that day. After the fire he went back to live with his mum, I think it was, in Eastbourne, and for some years became the town's resident pier entertainer. I often used to chat to him when working the town tours.
@paulm613 I have fond memories of Johnny Silver..my girlfriend and I had a wonderful holiday at Summerland in 1972. I was so shocked when news of the fire hit the media. Very sad day in our history even if the people of Douglas don't like to talk about it.
“There we’re no villains”
Nah. Miss me with that nonsense. They made every safety fault imaginable with the intention of cutting costs. Any one of these issues on their own is an honest mistake; together, it’s clear that the park owners were fine risking their visitors’ lives in the name of margins.
If you shoot one person, you'll go to prison. If you kill a hundred people in one of these large facilities or on an airliner, you'll get a slap on the wrist.
Profits, mah boy. We gotta make those profits! Capitalism requires to do that!
-Every CEO
And the real villains, were the capitalists we met along the way!
@@MegaSunspark amen
@@olimara1647 After all, communism works so well doesn't it, fool?
I hate how flammable fireproof buildings are 😭 the liquid hot plastic part was horrendous
It’s like all my favorite youtubers know each other. Hey Disturban
Oh god, just imagine running and feeling a flashing hot-sizzling-steaming sensation roll down your arm and taking all your skin with it.
@@cometcoma5186 hey hey
@@brianpj5860 like plastic lava 😖
Flammable cladding. Where have I heard that before?
*Ahem* Grenfell
"Fireproof" structures reminds me of an "unsinkable" ship from 1912.
😂
Only god could sink her - King Theodin
*broken flute sounds*
@@MustertheBrohirrim Iceberg : *A S C E N D*
The Iroquois theatre fire
A friend of mine had holidayed there the year before and had a great time. The family tried to book again for the first week in August 1973 but it was full. They managed to book for the first week in September. My mate realised how 'lucky' they had been to not be there when the fire hit.
What an awful tragedy this was.
Does anyone know the name of the employee who doused himself in water so he could try and save people for longer? I’ve been trying to find stuff about him but no luck. He’s an incredible hero
Sidenote, I know you must already do a lot of work but I’d love it if for these videos you could give us the sources you used for your research so we could read more about the events if we wanted
"It's no ones fault. The doors just randomly chained themselves together." *sigh*
Self aware chains will be the death of us all
Same sort of self aware chains that condemned 60+ football fans in Bradford too.
Whenever I hear about fire escape doors being chained shut I always remember the story my dad told me where at his place of work they had a fire drill and he drove a forklift through an emergency escape door that was chained shut. His boss was threatening to fire him for doing that, then was reminded of OSHA.
@@burkezillar Valley Parade? I remember hearing about that as a kid.
@@davidsnock2810 yep that one. The video of it is on TH-cam, it's ferocious and truly horrible.
If the phrasing in the brochure was used in a novel, the editor would return it and ask to make the foreshadowing less obvious.
Words are powerful. Some believe they are magic, hence you 'spell' a word!
@@ukrobochips8817 This one was either fae or djin magic, by the looks of it
@@nekovannox probably a Djin
@@nekovannox Or it was just a sentence, on a piece of paper. Crazy i know.
Someone ran away from their post at a kids’ ride without even taking a second to stop the machine or unbuckle them, leaving them trapped to die. I would like to personally fight the people who said, “there were no villains.”
but does debating about claiming that the workers were villains make you a villain? Like what about the guy who doused himself in water to save lives?
@@V00doo1Xim he pointed out A worker, he didn’t say ALL workers there were villains
Easy to judge a panicked person in fear of their life from the comfort of your home. People's brains stop thinking normally when their life is at stake. I doubt he intended to do that, he probably just reacted on his instincts
They were rescued though. You fall back on what training you've been given.
I find it all very strange how in most of these horrific tragedies nobody is ever brought to justice or held accountable.
The people responsible always try to say it was unavoidable or bad luck.
A lot of bad things happen that _are_ just due to bad luck. In which case, someone being "brought to justice" would just be a witch hunt.
People often label the USA as a country that loves to sue. I think that's a good thing. It's makes any Company or Corp more responsible for their actions. Hit them where it hurts. What every makes them think about people's welfare the better.
The 3 scousers that started the fire were fined £3 each . . . . .
@@nthgth but these are things that are often preventable if not for budget cuts, safety regulations being followed, downright negligence being uncovered, etc.
"One employee even doused himself in water from a fire extinguisher so he could stay longer and help guests"
Just damn....
Man deserves a medal.
That’s a real hero right there.
True hero
We saw the video.
@@petersrightbut8297 Awww, who's an edgy boy ? 🙄
My dad, grandmother and great-grandmother were all survivors of this. My dad is still unable to talk about it, but my grandmother used to show me the scars from skin- graphs over her arms. I'm now wondering if that was from the melting plastic. Feels emotional to listen to one of these where it invovled your own family.
Good grief. Thats awful. Glad they survived. Does your dad have scars? He must have been terrified
@Straw - yeah , like she wants your comments on an serious and emotional post. Troll.
*HUGS*
@Straw it's sad to read that her family suffered from this event when in reality people such as yourself are the ones who should instead, you're obviously robbing the rest of us from precious oxygen, please do something useful with your life.
@Straw You need help, immediately lllll
The amount of fire accidents that include "They thought it was fireproof" and "The exits were closed so people couldn't sneak in" is staggering.
Oh and not to forget: The corner cutting.
A reminder that in an emergency, we generally default to the level of our training. Part of the brain shuts down, and the other part takes over, and if you don't have appropriate training in what to do in case of an emergency, you might find that you've left a bunch of kids on a moving carousel because your brain in panic mode couldn't find a better pattern to follow than "GET OUT NOW".
This is why fire drills and fire safety education is so crucial to staff of any sort of public venue.
Unless you're doing proper firefighter training in an empty burning building I highly doubt any fire safety training offered by the resort could prepare you for that.
@@Fireglo General principle more than for this specific instance -- this just illustrates how quickly panic throws every other consideration out the window, even things most people would consider important (like the lives of children).
And the more widespread *basic* training is -- first aid, disaster preparedness, etc. -- the more effective it gets on a societal scale.
Training for evacuation in the specific location you're in, that's important regardless. There's a reason that families are advised to hold fire drills with their kids in their own homes.
Farout that staff member is a hero, dousing themself in water to stay longer to catch children being thrown down. What an absolute nightmare scenario, and just imagine being one of the parents trying to throw your child in the hopes that they survive
Seems to be the lone staff member that had a freaking heart. The ones that didn't call the fire brigade should be punished for not doing so and this brave one should be rewarded.
@@BlazeDuskdreamer Isn't it weird that the only people punished were 3 teenage boys, who's entire crime was to sneak a smoke?
@@adde9506 It really is.
@@adde9506 i think they were 'fined' to help reduce their guilt, they must feel terrible that they started the fire and to pay a fine would help i think
@@fioxeraviari5002 Would being fined $30 make you feel like you'd atoned for 50 deaths, or just be rubbing salt in the wound?
Maybe if they were 4 instead of 14.
"..by a parked car outside the building. A car that, with horrible irony, belonged to Summerland's safety officer." I literally facepalmed. YOU HAD ONE JOB.
How can the investigation come to a conclusion that "nobody is to be blamed"?
Can you fail more as a safety team member than blocking an exit with your vehicle?
@@galdavonalgerri2101 "It was my first day"
Same
It's like something Peter Griffin would do
@@balltongue666 Or Mr. Bean.
Ahhh, the 1970’s, a family driving to this center in a car without anyone wearing seatbelts, no airbags, with the parents chain smoking while the kids are unbelted in the backseat with all the windows up. ……And all of this was before arriving at the death trap of a building.
I always hate when people are like, “we never had seatbelts and we all survived” no you did not ALL survive. Let’s hear from the folks who did not survive…oh, wait…
Not to mention, no one wearing seatbelts
@@elizabethfallert1963 exactly. As a mom, I hear parents get this ALL the time for keeping their toddler rear facing in their car seat as long as possible and taking car seat safety seriously. “You and your siblings survived without one didn’t you?” Ya, and many children didn’t. It’s beyond me how something as life saving as car seats are seen as “extra” by some people in 2022.
Yeah and people - and young people! - are dying of cancer all over the place now, which didn't happen before and I remember when everyone smoked, everywhere and all the time. So why are cancers exploding? Oh because of cigarettes. But nobody smokes. (Thankfully people lost their sense of critical thinking now too. That's ''safe'' too.) If you knew all the toxic shit you are in contact with every single day, all around you, even the air quality in your house and caloric content of it (how fast it ignites, and how rigorously it burns), you'd be happy to return to the 70's.
With lax safety concern like this, and the normalization of pedophilia and grooming teen girls, I truly do not understand why people have fond nostolgia of the 70s. It sounds like absolute hell.
It was a poorly designed resort, but a well designed death trap.
Jigsaw and H.H. Holmes would be proud
My mum was meant to be working there that day but she had food poisoning from dodgy prawns the night before. Her replacement died
And the bible says eating shrimp is an abomination. Glad your mom survived
That’s... Wow
Damn dude
Yeah. Her and my father have stories of customers refusing to leave drinks even while the place was filling with smoke. I don’t if this part is true but my father (he was a barman in a nearby pub) mentioned that that the safety guy was in there A LOT before and after work. It’s just all really really sad
@@jenniferwebb5954
Where in the Bible does it say that eating shrimp is an abomination?
I’ll wait……
"They chained the door shut to prevent people from sneaking in"
Tell me you care more about profits than human life in one sentence.
This happens so often - I think there should be a specific law against it. There's something missing from the justice system without it. As it is - chaining / welding fire exits falls under wishy-washy, weak deinition for crimes like "negligence."
For owner criminal wrongdoing the charge is - "Usually, dropped, and they usually walk."
Chaining fire exits should be an automatic Negligent Homicide charge in case of deaths. A jailable offense if found during inspection.
One of the Seven/7 Deadly Sins is AVARICE/GREED!
If you wanna get really pissed search up the nightclub fire in Rhode Island , my friend from middle schools uncle died in that fire cuz the bouncer told everyone to go to a Different exit cuz the “managers” Had locked the exit he was guarding (despite there being a raging fire he still wanted to follow his managers orders).
People care more about their jobs and profits than other people’s lives unfortunately.
Human beings have been chaining/locking fire doors for "reasons" ever since we had the wherewithal to know buildings needed such a thing.
Though, if you want really creepy and a sign of caring about profits above human life - look up the newer evidence for the fire onboard the Scandinavian Star, a ship that appears to have been set on fire repeatedly in one night in order to collect on millions in insurance (that was for more than the ship itself was worth). I can chalk up chained exits in the video above as complacency and not believing a tragedy of that magnitude would happen (along with a healthy mix of pride and stupidity), but the idea of setting a boat on fire and making sure it spreads with hundreds on board while out to sea for money is bone-chilling.
Lessons to be learned
“Fascinating Horror” should cover the Our Lady of the Angels Fire, December 1, 1958, in Chicago. I lost 93 classmates and three nuns, one who managed to get some of the children to safety and went back one time too many. Every family in our neighborhood was touched, some lost all their children. And many survivors were horribly burned. A sad, sad day.
I lived in Milwaukee many years and have an odd fascination with things like this, and yet I've never heard of it. I wonder if any of the other channels might have something...
https: //th-cam.com/video/Dhjdgz3hVPU/w-d-xo.html
(Omit the space after the colon when plugging this into your browser. I think it's the only way we can post a link to another video.)
@@pioneercynthia1 plenty of stories on TH-cam about that tragedy too.
My mother lived down the block when it happened......she said it was awful....she said the little girl that lived next door to her perished in the fire. 😢
Odd... apparently it was a Catholic school.
I wonder why "god" let that happen.
The fact they built another "entertainment" complex in the same spot is just mind numbing. Talk about bad vibes.
The place still gives me the creeps today as an empty site with a few remaining structures.
When did they do that? When I was there in 2010 there was a slab and a retaining wall.
@@gragor11 He's talking about when they rebuilt the complex before it got flooded and demolished.
Because money.🤦♂️
Kinda the same level of stupidity as building a giant fancy ship and calling it the “Titanic II”...
The safety officer parked his car in front of the escape fire door , the carousel attendant ran off and left the kids on the ride for dead , same with the three that started the fire , the escape keys weren’t placed on the boxes they were supposed to be ... Jesus there was literally no safety regulations in the 70s.
Everybody was high.
@@williamhinshaw6838 Yes, let's take this time about a horrific disaster to talk about politics.
@@choco_L8 He is correct but it wasn't the place.
Well, either there were no regulations, or there were but the people who should have been enforcing them were paid off.
@@williamhinshaw6838 really odd take, considering that the disaster was significantly worsened since the fire safety regulations were not followed.
As an ex fire inspector, this video hits close to home. People rarely take fire inspectors seriously, lives tend to get lost when they do so. So sad
It really is sad. The reason there are fire regulations is (usually) because lives have *already* been lost because such regulations weren't already in place. An inspector's job isn't to be a nuisance; it is, literally, to save lives!
Literally had a science teacher that pointed to a sprinkler above his desk that he had partially covered because he did lots of experiments on that desk and say "If you're dad is a fire inspector, don't tell him about this."
That teacher also caused a small fire (as far as I'm aware nothing was damaged, and no one was hurt) a few years before...
Im currently an inspector, several of his videos go in depth on some of the incidents used in the current curriculum. Station nightclub, Cincinnati supper club, etc.
There are SO MANY disasters attributable to poor fire safety. Even 9/11 had poor fire safety as part of the severity.
@@marymohr2799 we had actual plastic covers in our science classrooms that teachers were required to put on the smoke detectors and sprinklers before doing experiments because they didn’t want to “accidentally trigger” the fire alarms. I always thought it was insanely stupid and it didn’t make sense why they’d be required to put them up, but I started skipping experiment days anyway, since I’m terrified of fire lol.
My wife, young daughter and I were there for an event at the TT in 1973. It was a death trap, in retrospect. The escape doors into the pool area were chained shut then. Access was up narrow, twisting stairs inside and outside. I actually said to my wife as we left that it would be God help anyone trying to escape. We could very easily have been in the same boat as those who died.
Hi. My uncle was killed in the Summerland disaster. He was bar manager, do you have any more information please? His name was Keith Maceachern. Thank you.
@@linzisouthernwood482 none at all, I'm afraid. We were just over for the TT Races, saw the fire on TV later the same year and it made me remember things that hadn't fully registered before.
Accidental fires from cigarettes are so common, and especially back then, everyone was just smoking everywhere. Because of this, fire regulations are so desperately needed. Even if you think "what could possibly cause a fire here?", just one single stray person too stubborn to smoke somewhere else, that's all it takes. And you know it happens all the time. I remember seeing sprinklers all over the vacation park I visited last year, they didn't make the ceiling very pretty, but they are a matter of life and death in these places. Glad they're there.
I can't even imagine trying to escape and having the windows _melting_ on me.
It always bothers me to hear about locked and chained doors in mass public venues. Weren't crash bars invented by that time?
That was my thought, crash bars have been around for as long as I can remember and I'm 78, so they certainly were.
Of course crash bars were fitted; what do you think they wrapped the chains around? 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
@@grahvis There is a Fascinating Horror video called "The Victoria Hall Disaster" that covers the disaster that lead to the creation of Crash Bars; and that's back in the 19th Century.
I worked in the Dublin theater back in the 70's, and fire exits were regularly chained up. Scenery canvas was supposed to be fire-proofed, but it never was due to cost.
Crash bars, yes. But many venues at the time still chained them to keep people from sneaking their friends in through the back. Not sure if the door alarm for emergency doors was around yet as that seems to have solved that problem nowadays.
My next door neighbours got caught up in this, but managed to escape with nothing more than singed hair.
Thanks for doing this, most have forgotten about it!
Im so glad they made it out alive
And the complex was only at a third capacity, thank God. 3000 instead of a possible 10,000 when it happened. Sliver of a silver lining, if that’s possible..
@ I couldn't agree more. The two old theater fires covered on this channel were massively worsened by overcrowding.
It’s still a sore subject to most manx people
Sure bud
sure
Sadly ... when comparing some of the catalogue of errors and the lack of accountability to what happened at Grenfell Tower it seems the lessons did disappear as quickly as Summerland II.
It was even worse than missed. Margaret Thatcher relaxed building regulations in what is referred to as "The Bonfire of Red Tape". These changes meant the cladding was rated "fireproof" based on a test in which a blowtorch is moved across 1m of the material over a period of 30 seconds. If it didn't catch then it was deemed fireproof. This change also took away the requirements regarding sprinkler systems.
Not only did they have the lessons from Summerland, they actively made a tragedy like it inevitable. It's not a shock though, her party in more recent events voted against legislation which would require landlords to ensure houses are habitable. The Conservative party is filled with landlords, landlords who voted against the dictionary definition of a house.
There is no creature more villainous than a tory MP, they'll kill a neighbourhood to save a few quid.
Aneurin "Nye" Beavan, a leading figure in the foundation of the NHS and massive post-war reforms, put it best when he said, "No attempt at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred of the Tory Party, so far as I'm concerned they are lower than vermin".
Remembering the Summerland fire, the permitting of flammable cladding on buildings always shocked me. I never thought I'd see another such fire but then the horror of Grenfell Tower.
*gives Safety Officer a stern look*
"You had one job lad. One."
All of these disasters make me feel so sad for those poor people who died in such terrible ways :(
I understand how you feel. At least the regulations would make this stuff less likely to happen....
...but it is sad it took people losing their lives in order for them to exist
@@courier-ec6zj it sadly always takes death for changes to regulation
Most, if not all safety features we have today, are built on the bodies that piled up during their absence.
It's very unfortunate that rules and regulations have to be written in blood
What makes me sadder is that these fires happened years apart and yet all of the same mistakes kept getting repeated over and over.
The lessons of Summerland clearly weren’t learned by enough people given that Beverly Hills Supper Club and that 1981 Dublin club fire happened
As a retired Firefighter, retrieving the bodies of children, still makes me cry to this day.
The coroner doesn’t do that?
@@GOLDVIOLINbowofdeath I believe a coroner just checks the bodies when they're recovered.
@@GOLDVIOLINbowofdeath if firefighters didn't remove the bodies, there wouldn't be many much of anything for the coroner to examine.
I’ve been a volunteer firefighter going on 13 years and I had my first experience with a fatal fire a few weeks ago. Two victims after a vehicle accident involving a semi. I didn’t sleep for two days. It was a week before I could close my eyes and not see the bodies. I went to fire training a few days ago and had to leave because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Just being in the station upset me. But I’m slowly getting better mentally but I never want to see anything like that ever again.
You would not be human nor a decent one if you didn't feel such grief
I discovered this channel about an hour ago and have been bingeing videos ever since
Deadass
Fire is always a serious issue. I stepped out of my old apartment in 1995 and made my way down the sidewalk when I noticed someone lighting a bbq grill on his porch. I stopped walking forward and started back-peddling towards my apt. And just like I feared the charcoal, soaked in starter fluid, shot a flame 5 or 6 feet high and immediately set the floor of the porch on the 2and floor ablaze. I grabbed the phone from its base and dialed 911 as I went back out to observe and report. In less than 60 seconds the entire building was burning, it was eye-opening to see just what fire can do and with such quickness! The fire brigade arrived very fast and nobody was hurt, but the building itself was damaged quite a lot. Fire is fast and powerful, never underestimate what it can do.
I was in there the week before it burned down... My dad worried about safety due to the fire escapes being chained shut. So we only visited once. Thank goodness.
It was his fault too why didn't he alert the fire department
@@elizabethtyler3771 he did actually mention it to someone, my dad isn't the type of person not to.. He wasn't quiet in his opinions, I can assure you of that. ,
It was the 70s, life was very different then.
We can only learn from the past, can't change it.
@@elizabethtyler3771 That is a foolish ass comment. 🙄 what is wrong with you
How is it his fault! That’s cruel and wrong
@@elizabethtyler3771 actually elizabeth it was your fault, I saw you throw the cigarette butt in the kiosk. Legal proceedings will be brought upon you
I know any loss of life is a tragedy but I’m actually surprised the number of dead wasn’t higher in a situation like that. It sounds horrifying.
I was expecting a lot more than fifty, that's for sure.
I was too.
I suspect under reporting of the actual numbers. Like can you actually believe the numbers are 50 dead and 80 injured in a building that's supposed to hold 10,000 people?
@@tommyvercetti891 Not really.
I remember standing on the North Pier in Blackpool watching the black smoke coming over in waves.
I was 12 and I'll always remember that too this day
I live on the Isle of man and this incident still haunts us as a community. As a child we used to go into areas of the building that still had the visable marks of the fire but were blocked off. It was knocked down many years ago now but you can still see the stair cases and parts of the building in the cliff behind. It is truly haunting
Is it true that locals aren't too keen on talking about the incident and even tried to oppose the building of a memorial?
"an ultra modern building constructed mainly from metal and plastic"
me: oh no
"to set the architectural world alight" ...followed by the silent sound of hundreds of sphincters shutting themselves closed.
This will be a problem..
I think I’ve heard this before… and I didn’t like the ending
If I had heard it was just a "chip pan fire" I would have left on my own. Because even though it was a lie Ive seen a chip pan fire just go up in seconds because someone threw water on it.
Reminds me of the sewol, South Korean ferry disaster. Basically if there is a fire or some kinda danger in the building/vessel your in. Trust your instincts and get the heck out of there in the safest but fastest way possible.
@@emismpunk With the high schoolers? That was fucking infuriating.
I have heard (though I am having difficulty finding English sources that confirm this) that a girl who lost both her parents in this disaster - AND HAS BEEN BULLIED BY HER CLASSMATES BECAUSE OF IT. Her uncle claims that she has had to change schools three times.
@@thepanpiper7715 Fucking hell. Children are monsters.
@@thepanpiper7715 yeah, that’s the one. Captain and crew told them to stay put while they made their own escapes. Pretty much only the ones that disobeyed ended up surviving. Same thing with the sampoong department store collapse. Owner was made aware of the immediate danger and high tailed it out of there without informing any of the customers. The building ended up killing slightly over 500 and injuring over 900 more.
I had to Google what a chip pan fire is 🤔
My family visited a couple of weeks before the fire. It was difficult to get into from street level, having to go up several small circular flights of stairs, then across a concrete concourse to the main building. The entrance was small with turnstiles and barriers only letting one person a time in. We stayed in the main space for a while but it all seemed a bit disjointed and not well thought out. To get to anything you had to take a tortuous route on overhead walkways and after having some snacks and playing some games in the open area, the rain had stopped outside so we left. It was more difficult to get out due to the turnstiles etc, and after the disaster I often thought how scared people must have been trying to find each other and squeeze thru the small exits with all the other panicked people whilst molten plastic was falling on them.
What you have described gave me so much anxiety. I can't even imagine what that would be like in an emergency situation...
I remember this happening, my cousin was staying with us at the time, and her 2 sisters were in the Isle of Man, we were all really worried that they had been in the building. No mobile phones in those days, it was a while before we heard from our cousins that they were OK. The news programs covered it for weeks, really horrific.
A recurring theme in these disaster stories is that the wealthy investors who repeatedly put profits before people’s lives - invariably walk away without a single consequence.
nothings changed.
These muther EFFERS who called their enterprise "SUMMERLAND" should have been SUED out of EXISTENCE. There NEVER should have been another "Summerland" constructed, let alone existed for another 30 years, because they shouldn't have been able to AFFORD to do so. You wanna talk about CHARITY? CHARITY is a billionaire who spends millions on a class-action lawsuit with lawyers who will vow to fight until both "Summerland, Inc." (or whatever the entertainment corp. called itself) and all four or five construction companies are bankrupt...Or at the very least become financially paralyzed and unable to operate as a business. IF they should claim insolvency, the victims should be granted EQUITY in each of the four or so companies and split the equity remaining in "Summerland," et al. after they were forced to cash out.
THAT is what GOOD people with billions extra to spend in the world SHOULD DO to properly wield their power and create a significant, effective legacy for themselves. But of course that won't happen. Instead, let's fool around with outer space toys and other goofy, unnecessary machinery... >:-(
I suppose it's the perfect place for a serial killer to hide, if you want to kill lots of people and get away with it, just cause an industrial accident as CEO of a company.
@@larkefedifero unfortunately British law doesn't allow for that, and outer space toys are the only thing that will keep the human race alive in 100 years.
Also, the exits are alway chained locked preventing people from escaping.
As a child you learn about fire safety with strict rules like "don't run, walk", "the priority is to get yourself out safely", "never go back into a burning building" and "remain calm". it's heartbreaking to learn about the incidents that inspire these rules
When I was a child, there were many videos I saw on safety. Even cartoons had safety messages in them. That was in the 80s, I don't know if the same remains true.
@@JaidenJimenez86 As an American born in the 90's, I can't say that I ever remember watching a fire-safety video other than Smokey the Bear, but that was about forest fires, not building fire evacuation or safety.
@@justinecamille7426 born very late 80s and a child of the 90s. We had something like a small trailer park house thing that we got put in and smoke would fill up the rooms and the rooms ceiling was pretty low so you couldn't stand and had to crawl. It taught us how to evacuate a house fire. Pretty cool and fun. But where I lived it was still a kinda small townish place so I guess they could spend the money for that then. I remember seeing a ton of fire safety commercials. .. maybe it depended on where you grew up..
@@JaidenJimenez86 as someone who was a kid in the 2000s, we had a LOT of fire safety stuff. yearly throughout elementary school we were taught what to do. i genuinely was convinced fires were a common occurrence and i’d catch on fire like once a week
@@Slappap I remember that thing. Our local fire department has one that they take around to all of the local schools.
My grandparents had visited Summerland the day before the fire and were still in the Isle of Man when it happened.
It's sobering to think that if they had been in there on the day of the disaster I may never have known them.
I'd heard the story many times growing up and a couple of years ago even wrote a song about the disaster as I somehow feel connected.
Such a tragedy.
This delights me. (Your whole channel makes me happy; I have trainwreck syndrome and am a compulsive researcher, and having documentaries like these which highlight particular disasters available to get other people interested in them is wonderful.)
I wrote up Summerland myself years ago and the thing that struck me most about the whole gigantic mess was the disconnect between the two architects/architectural firms -- and the fact that Oroglas's manufacturers themselves knew the stuff was flammable, an internal memo even pointing out that the stuff could burn "in quite a frightening manner" -- and yet everyone sort of just looked the other way.
Brilliant work.
You are a robot psychopath but a good robot psychopath
They used a similar acrylic product in the construction of the "Biosphere" at the Montreal Expo '67. They KNEW how flammable it was, so they ensured there were enough emergency exits available in case they had to evacuate quickly. They limited the number of visitors who could be inside the structure at one time. Personnel dedicated to "fire watch" were always present in the structure, ready to sound the alarm.
On 20 May 1976, a welder ignited a fire, and the structure burned spectacularly in just 30 minutes.
"There were no villains, just many human errors"- yep, whoever signed off all the budget cuts is a human error.
An believe me how many such human errors make decisions about safety
It's funny how whenever crass negligence happens and dozens of people die it's "never anyone's fault". Sheer human stupidity and evil at work once more.
Also the fact that 3 teens were unable to stamp out a single match and simply fled without telling anyone about the growing fire
'there were too many villains it was easier to chalk it up to welp people will be people!'
And safety design. A lot of theaters used to be like that...no emergency exits. Takes a disaster to get anything to change. Remember the Triangle Shirt Waist Company in NYC?
This channel has taught me to bolt at the first whiff of trouble when in a large crowd.
Better yet, avoid large crowds at all costs
Just be sure to stop the ride, figuratively speaking, first.
I don't go out anymore without wearing a jetpack (or if in formal attire, jetpants) so I can escape at a moments notice.
@@spacewolfjr i have so much respect for you, sir. we need to start lobbying for jetpack fire exits in all buildings.
After 9/11 I've learnt follow your instincts and bolt...
Very well done documentary. My dad went on a family trip there a couple of days before for his 8th birthday and it's crazy to think how lucky he was that he avoided the tragedy by just a handful of days. Rest in peace to all the victims :( and my heart goes out to all of the survivors.
We were supposed to go there that day but didn't go because 4 year old me wasn't feeling well.
That night, while watching the news in our hotel on the other side of the Isle of Man, we were shocked when we saw the footage of the fire.
So glad we didn't go when we were supposed to.
Just like how the doors here were locked to keep people from sneaking in, the same kind of thing happened at the Stardust nightclub fire here in ireland. My dad was a young adult when this happened and he is very particular about fire safety since. The club was dark and it was too late before the smoke was noticed and the was a stampede to the front door because the fire door was locked to stop people sneaking in. My dad was in another place a few weeks after and e checked the fire door, heres a giant lock and chain on the door. Bouncer came over and told my dad to leave it alone. My dad said why is it locked? Same reason as alwasys. My dad brought up Stardust and said it would be very bad if someone brought the fire Marshall into it and the bouncer cut the lock right in front of him.
so stupid and so many people have died because they don't want to lose money instead of hiring better security guards.
It’s horrifying just how many buildings used to have their fire doors locked. Beggars belief!
I was in a bar years after The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, USA. One of the signed emergency exits off the main part of the room had a trash can in front of it to stop people from using it, and the door was locked with no way to open it without the key. I insisted that the manager unlock it. He was defiant at first, insisting that if there was a fire that people could leave via the (narrow) entrance we came in through. I told him that wasn't good enough, that it's a signed emergency exit and it needs to be unlocked. He scoffed at me, "What, are you the fire marshal or something?" I immediately replied, "No, but I'll be happy to call him right now if you'd like." He unlocked the door.
there was a video i watched recently by Qxir about it, really rough stuff. Good on your dad for standing up for what he knew was right in that other club
Same thing a hundred years ago in New York City - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory - workers left locked in
this just unlocked a memory of my dad - who is a fireman- yelling at hotel staff for locking the fire exits in the pool area. we just wanted to crack it open because it was hot in there and it ended up a big deal because that’s the fucking fire exit that had glass that couldn’t even be broken.
Safety officer blocking a fire exit with his car is next level Homer Simpson shit.
Two old friends of mine lost their wives in this horror. Appaling.
My condolences
I am sorry to hear that. It was tragic
my dad was an isle of man local, i remember him talking about the dripping roof and thick black smoke from the plastic when we went back to (illegally) look around the property some time in 2011, thank you so much for covering this it was great to hear what happened in detail and not just vague stuff my dad remembers.
Fire genuinely is the most terrifying thing cause people just don't seem to grasp how insidious it is. My mate burnt down his mother's house by falling asleep with just one candle lit. The curtains caught the flame and next thing he woke up and the walls were all on fire. He said the only thing that saved his life was that he had cleaned his room earlier in the day so there were no clothes and rubbish littering the floor, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get out cause they would have caught too. Fire is no joke, once it catches it really catches!
How do people sleep with a lot candle?
😭😭
That's literally a bait to tragedy.
Fire is my worst nightmare, literally. Every night before bed I clear the walkways in my house (and I also turn off all power points for safety) so if I wake to find my house ablaze I can grab my little girls and my wife and bail the fuck out as quick as possible.
I'm in a two storey house with small windows (it's a fucking shithole) so there are only a very few exits.
Jesus, I'm getting anxiety just thinking about it.
My partner refuses to have candles in the house for that exact same reason (his friend set his old building complex due to a candle being left lit)
@@randomtinypotatocried get a candle warmer. Basically a small heat plate that melts the wax with no flame.
@@RA75AK yeah it's terrifying, I live in the top flat where there's only one exit and the flat directly below me are forever burning scented candles and incense. If they started a fire and it spread to the hallway (runs along the entire length of their flat) my only way out is to jump out the window and hope not to break too many bones on landing.
I find myself planning a fire exit inside my head everywhere we go. Feel so bad for people who pass away like this. Last minutes being absolutely horrific.
I know an ex-fireman who now teaches fire safety to staff of businesses and hotels and he told me that when he is anywhere on vacation he makes himself and his family, do an actual fire exit walk. Like in a hotel he would walk from his room to the fire exit with his family a few times so if something happens it has already become somewhat of a familiar route :) I thought that was a great idea and it may seem a bit paranoid but it really does not take a lot of time to do at all. Now I also plan my exit wherever I go in an unknown building :) (or plane)
Its an awful painful, panicked way to die so I do the exact same thing. I know where all my exits r within a couple of minutes of entering a place.
Except the problem is, noting the fire exists and then finding them chained closed and/or without keys in this case. It's really shameful that no one was held accountable for all these negligent homicides.
They studied this after 9/11 using records from air accident records. People who survive catastrophic accidents are likely to have a plan of how to exit or have lived through something similar. Apparently if the brain has nothing to go to in the situation it just doesn't do anything. People will just sit in their seats or while the plane burns. The article was fascinating and now I always have a plan.
I'm a former firefighter & ex-military. My wife thinks I'm crazy (well I am an American she's probably right) anytime we go anywhere I look for exits, in hotels I find the stairwells, counting doorways between our room and them. Last place we stayed the door next to our room was the stairwell. I used it over the elevator when I was going up or down alone.
This is truly horrifying m!! Especially if you were there and split up from your children... i would 100% be panic searching for them rather than evacuating.
Can't imagine the terror :((((
You’d likely die , if you teach your children to evacuate and they do, and you evacuate then all should escape ( hopefully, not sure in that place if that works, in any case I’m the idiot that runs inside to help)
All I have to say is mad kudos to those staff members that stayed behind to help, that takes a lot of balls. All I have to say is TEACH YOURSELF AND YOUR CHILDREN PROPER FIRE SAFETY
"the sprinkler system was not installed due to finances". Sounds like a huge lawsuit to me.
This is common in UK.
In my company is no sprinkler system for this reason, company paying extra insurance because of this.
And we working with a bit flammable materials ;)
Because company policy i cannot say any more details.
@@stanley3647 I don’t think any more details are even required for me to know that whoever is running that company is an absolute tool.
@@justin2308 I need to mention about one fire (was no sprinklers as well)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-26583719
No not if the code didn’t require it which obviously didn’t
Let me guess..your from the US.
Maybe you could make a video about the Sampoong mall collapse in Korea sometime? It was a pretty big disaster, and I feel like a lot of people don't know about it.
The "Well there's your problem" podcast did this as one of their first episodes if you interested in an engineering perspective and aren't put off by the hosts taking pop-shots at capitalism.
Or Train People. They are very devout Train People.
@@thepanpiper7715 they should have just made the department store more rigid, that would have fixed it
His TH-camr friend at 'disasterthon' just did it.
Yes, the building was shoddy and poorly designed and managed. All to increase profits.
Nat Geo did an episode on that on “Seconds to Disaster”. That’s where I first heard of it. Definitely a good candidate for this channel
Oh my goodness didn’t even know this 😟 It’s a mix of the 70’s film Towering Inferno and the flammable plastic from the Grenville Towers fire in London a few years back
I remember after the fire, me and my dad drove past on the way to see my grandparents, and there were stretchers leaning up outside along the wall. The stretchers were blackened and greasy, and looking not unlike paper towels that held barbequed meat.
That image has never left me.
Unfortunately, that's because barbecued meat was exactly what they held.
My mum saw this happen from her stay-room window, aged 4 when she was on holiday with her mum. She’d been inside the building earlier that day but they had gone back because it would be her bed time soon. Such an unfortunate tragedy.
I'm so glad that she and your other family members are alright!
@@vxlley_flower5672 thank you. So am I. Things could have ended very differently and my heart goes out to all of the people who sadly did loose a loved one
I don't know if it's just me, but my stomach dropped when they mentioned young children being left trapped on the fairground rides during the fire - after the ride operators fled without switching them off or letting them out - and nearby adults having to climb on while they were still going to rescue them. Even the very thought of that happening in the midst of a massive inferno is beyond horrifying.
That sound taken from a disaster/horror movie, what an horrible scenario to have your child in.
a carousel doesn't move very fast
Would be a horrifying and poignant image (if someone had taken a photo): a bunch of 2- to 8-year-olds on a ride, crying and screaming as the smoke and flames get closer....
I kind of hope that coward wasn't one of the survivors. We don't need more people like that in this world.
I saw it. We were on holiday there. I was eleven years old. We were at the amusement arcade up on Douglas Head. As we watched it burn, we had no idea that people had died. The horses from the horse trams were unharnessed and reared in fear. Next day was Friday, the last day of our holiday. The local radio station played sad music all day. We tried to phone our family in Liverpool to reassure them, but the phone lines were jammed - early 1970s, remember. They were so worried.
My Dad hated Summerland because it was such an ugly modern building. I was a daddy's girl. That stopped me wanting to go there.
I’ve just watched 5 of your videos back to back. Interesting, detailed and well told. Your voice is now soothing me to sleep 😊
I live in South Korea and it would be amazing if you could cover the collapse of the Sampoong department store in 1995. It has always horrified and fascinated me. I LOVE your videos!
How about No.
@@Pinhead101 why
Send him an email about it. His info is in the description.
@@Pinhead101 nobody asked, bud
My Mum was staying up the road in a hotel with her husband. They were on their way to Summerland when they saw people starting to run out screaming. It wasn't long before they saw it in flames.
She was also a passenger on the Herald of Free Enterprise the day before it sank which you've also talked about. She had some very narrow brushes with disaster.
It's so strange to have grown up with these stories and then see videos with photographs and back story, really scary.
final destination irl
...
Your mother either needs to buy a lottery ticket... or check to see if she was ever cursed by a witch.
I know the feeling, my mother missed one of the trains that blew up in the 7/7 London Underground bombings. She'd stopped to make sure her card was put away properly after going through the barriers and thus had missed it, she wasn't in a rush to catch it anyway since tubes are like every couple of minutes and she had tons of time to get to work.
@@tmntleo Wow your mom was lucky.
@@babecat2000 or she's bad luck
Growing up in the States I always wondered why fire safety equipment and training was so abundant despite never witnessing a building fire.
Now I get it
Chicago fire. Fire doors opened inwards. A horror. So all doors open out in the US now, with automatic latches on fire doors which open if you lean on them. In the UK the security people get annoyed if you use a Ford door! Not so in the US.
Yeah exactly. When it can be THIS bad just once, it becomes clear why it needs to be (seemingly) over-emphasized. I know I didn't always take it as seriously as I now think I should.
My parents, brother and I had been in there that day. Came out of ‘Live and Let Die’ (I think) to see the fire at the other end of the bay. Left on ferry a day or so later
As a kid I remember burning myself pretty bad after trying to melt an action figure...I can't imagine how awful it would be to have giant, melting pieces of plastic raining down on you as you're trying to escape certain death.
It would at least, cauterize the wounds
@@roncheaters "Cauterising" kinda doesn't help when the wound itself is the burn caused. Removing melted plastic from skin is a major, major problem - it's why you see those goofy looking scissors on firefighters and EMTs, because in a world of clothing that's largely plastic, you have to cut around where clothes have melted to skin in case of a fire/grease burn/etc because if you try to just remove the burned clothing, you're likely to take the patient's skin with it.
Burns are no joke. Regardless of the cause. Severe enough, and your body loses the ability to regulate temperature, and...it's still a wound. It may not BLEED per se, but you are going to lose fluids and have some pretty crazy bodily responses to it.
@@paperartillery3774 I don't often respond to comments or replies but jesus christ, I wasn't aware of most of this
@@Spoopybug it is no joke
I got a whiff of steam coming from the industrial baking oven in my face, luckily i turn my head quickly and got the side of my right cheek and neck burn (i forgot about the rule that i have to stay behind the door to let the steam go first)
It immediately start to look like it bubbling, it left a mark on my face for two week, feel sore every single moment
The whole thing happen in just 1s, i caught like 10% of that steam coming out since i yank my head back immediately but fuck me it look awful
as a kid I use to burn a little green army men out of curiosity. Until that stuff dripped on my skin. It doesn’t stop burning until it wants to. It gets imbedded into your flesh and you have to dig it out. I stopped burning army men after that.
My god not only were there flames, but it was "raining" fire due to the melting glass!
As soon as he said the building was made with plastic, I knew what was going to happen. As a welder, you're told to never wear synthetic material at work because it melts like napalm. What senseless suffering.
I remember a news headline from the day.
“Molten plastic rained on children”
Welcome to Napalmotopia!
Glass wouldn't melt in a building fire. Glass melts at 1300 C, the temp of a building fire would be less than 800 C. That glass they talk about is clear plastic.
@@MolecularMachine but, but, but, it's a MODERN material, it's designed for beauty, cost effectiveness, and according to all standing safety standards (meaning it's solid enough that bumping into it won't tear it).
This is the most painful one of these I've watched, it really pisses me off how many things were done wrong
I remember when someone did a showcase of Summerland at UCM (the college) in Douglas for the art gallery and after the video, it had all the names with photos of the victims (like school pictures/family photos) and it was heart-wrenching
I remember this horrible disaster. There was a rumour at the time that workmen constructing Summerland would use some of the window materials to start small fires (in order to keep warm). It was known beforehand that there were highly flammable products incorporated in the structure of the building.
I would think, if it was made of plastic, it can burn big time; aren't all plastics derived from oil? I don't know what they were thinking.
I used to work as a machinist making polymer parts for the medical industry. We worked with a lot of cyanoacrylic (much like the solid form of super glue) and people would regularly take bits of it home to start bonfires and such because of how highly flammable it was. That was until they were discussing this with someone who actually understood the material and it was pointed out that burning this stuff released cyanide gas into the air.
Not quite the same thing but this comment reminded me of that. We aren't always the brightest species
@@daffers2345 depends. Some plastics are great fire retardants, but most go up like a candle.
😲
@@daffers2345 it was 1973 some of this wasnt as obvious
The worse part for the people was probably trying to find their children in the crowded pools or on another level!!! I could never have just run out of the building without knowing where my family was!
You would have been no use to your family dead if you had wandered around looking for them, when they were getting out themselves.
I know it's heart-wrenching.
Same, but I guess that's why it's so important to have staff trained on proper evacuation and to get the fire department there ASAP. Direct people to get out in an orderly fashion and you would be able to find your family members fast.
@Vicar Amelia my mom had to do this with me as a kid. I would have never gone outside without knowing she was safe even as a kid so Im glad she decided to have that talk with me. She also played a game when we would go into a store or any building for that matter, where I would find all the exits. This has come in handy as an adult.
My mom wasn’t always the kindest person but I m grateful she always taught me safety in all situations. I was always told to run away from the fire.
Quite amazingly I'd never even heard of this disaster even though I was a kid at the time; it's even more amazing to me that no-one has ever made a TV drama series of it, along the lines of Chernobyl.
my sister was nearly in that blaze. My parents and sister were holidaying there and were having dinner down the street. My sister wanted to meet a few friends she had made there and go to Summerland as it was their last night there. Daddy said no, that she has been there every evening and this time she could go later but they were going to have dinner together first. A few mins after their dinner came they heard sirens and saw smoke and people running up the street when they leaned out the window. At least one of the friends she made didn't make it out alive that night 😔
This channel has taught me that most disasters started with, "Hey, I got this great idea to save $100..."
Yup, that's normally the proximate cause
This channel simply provides many examples of why safety regulations exist. As they say 'regulations are written in blood'
@@ethantheatlas2744 But Grenfell Tower fire 14 June 2017, how's that for learning from history?
The root cause of most disasters, save time and money, usually both, just look at Deepwater Horizon
Yeah, or "Hey, wanna make $100?"
This incident has so many similarities to the movie "The Towering Inferno" that was released around the same time. The son-in-law played by Richard Chamberlain says famously in that film "When I brought the construction costs in under budget, nobody complained that I was cutting corners. They were all thanking me for doing such a great job."
And William Holden's character: "I don't care about a fire in a storeroom! The Mayor and Senator are here! Get up here to the party!"
Wow, that film takes me back in the old time machine,
@@eucliduschaumeau8813 Starring Everybody of 1974!
In "The Towering Inferno" do you remember the scene with OJ Simpson saving the cat?
@@JohnDoe-bf1fw I don't remember that part, but I do remember when McQueen tells Newman " One of these days, these 100 story high buildings are going to kill 10 thousand people"
"Set the architectural world alight." Considering the fate that befell it, that was such a cruel irony of words.
I couldn't imagine being a kid riding a carousel with like a sibling or friend for a fire to start, and the adult who is a operator, leave you for dead.
"Set the architectural world alight"
_Now that's just tempting fate, isn't it?_
Yes, like the Titanic being unsinkable!!
Right?!
WHAHAHA
Foreshadowing at its best.
Those three boys would be in their early 60s now. I wonder how their life went with such a big burden to carry.
They probably went on to be politicians.
@@Pfsif oof
tbh though you cant blame them fully yes they are also equally responsible for the tragedy but even the hotel owners to and on more thing why in the 70s shutting exits so common like why
I wonder if they quit smoking
My thoughts too. Everyone makes mistakes. Some are just bigger and irreversible. They were just boys. God Bless Them.
I remember visiting Summerland when we visited Howstrake Holiday camp in 1972. I seem to recall it was a fantastic treat and really felt like a modern - almost futuristic - leisure centre
It was my family's one and only visit to the Isle of man
I was 13 when this disaster happened so wasn't an avid viewer of the news, and this is the very first time I have heard of it.