A short sojourn to Keadby and Scunthorpe

The 3rd of June 2013

It's time I went and visited some of my family. I haven't seen much of them since our Ireland Reunion back last August. 

I'm driving down. It's the Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria but the A66 is relatively quiet and I only see two horse driven traps on the road. I should go visit one year.

I'm staying at Keadby (pronounced Kidby), home of my eldest daughter.

I can't believe how much Callum and Erin have grown in ten months.

I'll see Charlotte and Jack tomorrow. We went to Fun Forest at Brigg where they could be let loose. 

My first morning in Keadby and I'm taking a walk.

There's a lot of drains in this area. It's historically part of the Isle of Axholme which is criss crossed with drains much like the Norfolk Broads.

The Keadby Pumping Station featured on the BBC's Domeday's programme back in 1986

There's an amazing amount of birds across the area.

Other flyers are also available.

Neither myself or my elder daughter had ever heard of Volotea, but it's a Barcelona based low cost airline.

Still on Keadby Drains I've spotted a quartet of Canada geese

I never knew that the dandelion seed heads that we used to tell the time from as kids were called  filamentous achenes. I'll never remember that !

It's good to see that the Pisces Angling Club are looking after those less able

From the drains I now take to the path alongside the Stainforth and Keadby Canal 

It's also at this point that the trains usually cross the canal. These rails must be relatively new since the Corus Group was formed through the merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens and British Steel on 6 October 1999. Perhaps the 08 signifies the year. 

MSM in my days at the steelworks stood for Medium Section Mill.

There are no trains running at the moment, but it looks like the signalman is working. The reason no trains are running is due to a major Landslip at Hatfield Main Colliery

Good to see that they're using the stoppage time for maintenance work

This machine is a Colmar Rail Loader

An announcement of an upcoming fishing match.

Judging by the one word comment at the bottom, someone must be happy with the allocated pegs.

Alongside the canal is the Keadby Power Station hence a large number of pylons in the area.

When I worked at Keadby Wharf we'd often see ducks with a large number of cygnets. It was also a fact of life that many of the cygnets did not survive. Pike was the danger from below while raptors were often seen hovering overhead. If mother duck raises three of these bonny wee things she'll have done well.

Quack quack babies and good luck.

I walked almost three and a half of the four miles along the canal to Ealand near Crowle, and all along here were swans. 

I disturbed a pair of resting ducks...........

...........but kept taking pictures..................

.............until they took off.

There was quite a variety of water birds. I spotted a number of tufted ducks.

A new bridge now crosses the canal. The operators of Keadby Power Station, SSE are now busy preparing a site west of the power station to accommodate a thirty four turbine windfarm. Looking around the area it's not just Galloway that's being flooded by them. 

I'm still on the fence, but for those interested here's opposing views.

Wind Energy the Truth by J.A.Halkema (he died aged 90 in 2009)

It's hard to find a link that isn't somehow connected to the power industry and their companies, but here's one from the BBC's childrens programme CBBC

I think I'll soon be off that fence !

  

more swans

another tufted duck

retracing my steps

are these more of a blot on the landscape than turbines ?

The Power Station. Note the lack of smoke from the chimneys. It's offline at the moment

At the lock gates where the canal flows into the river Trent.

Top left is the Spider T, top right an old workmate.

Bottom left my old boss and golf partner, bottom right is the barge the Hakuna Matata (recently sold for £65,000) 

On Tuesday we're off to Brigg to meet up with my second eldest daughter and Jack and Charlotte. 

There are four levels of fun (it's the biggest playframe for miles), a four lane Astra slide, a giant spiral slide, a twin lane wavy slide and a toddlers area.

Callum didn't come along, he's too big now. These three are having a great time though. 

On reflection !

I love you kids.

Scunthorpe claims to be the Industrial Garden Town. I'm absolutely amazed at the new building projects in the shadow of the Anchor Steelworks. Is the town bucking the national trend.

   

My walk today is through Twigmoor Woods close to the town.

Various varieties of rhododendrons make it really colourful.

  

One of the Scawby Gull Ponds

However, back at Keadby there's almost as much of Mother Nature

A young blackbird sits on a recycling bin................

.................and close by.

I've enjoyed my short trip but I'm now on my way home.

I've heard on the radio that there may be delays on the A66 due to the Appleby Horse Fair.

I'll take the scenic route over the A68 and A689 via Alston

This is a beautiful area. This is the North Pennines and they're hosting a Walking Festival in September.

I seem to remember that I'm looking down at the Nenthead Mines

I can see lots of people sitting outside the Nenthead Mines cafe.

I take a driving break in the highest market settlement in England

It's Alston of course

The good weather's fetched out the tourists

I'm surprised that there's no one sitting outside the Turk's Head though

I've been on this road before and if you're in no hurry it makes a scenic change to the A66 Scotch Corner to Penrith. There are lots of quaint villages and hamlets along the way. Below was my last picture of the day before getting back to my home in Newton Stewart.

I wondered whether Slaggyford suffered jokes about it's name, but surprisingly it seems not. Must just be my warped mind. It is however home to what looks like a good pub,the Kirkstyle Inn. May be worth a visit and not a million miles from Galloway.

That was a very enjoyable little jaunt and the weather was good to me.

See you guys again soon.

Flixborough, the first of June 1974 - For the record - Part 1

Disclaimer                                                                                      

This post contains images and text from a number of different sources.All images have been scanned by me  from old publications and cuttings.The copyright of these belong to the respective publications and their owners and is presented for recording my recollections of a day in my life.

Should anyone object to any of these images or any part of this post please contact me and if necessary I will remove the offending image or paragraph.

Scunthorpe Telegraph - The biggest story we ever covered

Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph

Back in 1974 I was employed as a Chemical Process Operator at the Nypro plant at Flixborough.

The name Nypro came from  the words Nylon Production.

There is an american company who also go by the name of Nypro and who's name comes from Nylon Products and bear no relation to this now defunct company.

On Saturday June the 1st at just after ten to five in the afternoon the place went up.

At the time it was the biggest peacetime explosion the country had seen. ( It was capped by the Buncefield Depot  explosion in 2005 )

Here are three more links to the Flixborough blast.   

Explosion Liaison Group Meeting

Health and Safety Executive

Wikipedia

Now here's my recollection of the day.I've scanned my statement to the enquiry and it's published a little further on.

It was a Saturday we were down to minimum staff as quite a few folk had wangled the day off to go to the annual Appleby Frodingham Gala in nearby Scunthorpe.

  

I'd been up to the Sulphate plant to take my readings and headed back to the control room.

What happened next is condensed into my official statement.

Other recollections will follow this. 

Statement of JAMES DEANS of 8 Pheasant Close, Scunthorpe.

I am an operator on the Sulphate Plant and 

have been employed by Nypro for over three years.

The Sulphate Plant is to the west of the factory as 

a whole but must be distinguished from the Oleum Plant 

although both Plants share the same control room.

On the day of the accident I was working the

3.00 p.m to 11.00 p.m shift. We work the shifts on

a rota basis but the personnel of each shift remain

together. I was with my usual colleagues and during

the course of the afternoon I carried out my routine

duties. Certainly I noticed nothing unusual.

At approximately 3.30 p.m I took samples from the Plant

to the laboratory for analysis in the usual way.

At about 4 o'clock I went round the Plant taking readings

and thereafter I returned to the Oleum control room.

As a matter of routine we take readings every two hours

and thus my next task was again to walk round my part

of the Plant at about 6,00 p.m in order to monitor the

instruments.

The Oleum control room is on the ground floor,

the switch gear for the area being above the control room,

I remained there from about 4.15 until about 4.50 when

I heard a noise very like a large balloon bursting.

The building did not vibrate but almost everyone in the

control room rushed out of the northern door.  I remember

grasping my safety helmet and rubber gauntlets as I went

through the door.  I think four of us rushed out and left

the Process Control Technician in the control room.

We all left in a hurry and thus we were aware that

something had gone wrong.

                                                                                         

Harry Nattrass, who was the Process Control

Technician for the shift, later told me that he had

tried to look out of the southern door of the control

room.

Having left the northern door we re-traced our

steps along the outside of the control room in a

southerly direction.  When we came round the southern

corner of the building we looked east above the Sulphate

Store.  The store consists of a reinforced concrete

wall some 10 to 12t high and above the wall the roof

structure was being reconstructed.  Basically the

roof is a wooden structure and as work was being done

on the building it was possible for us to see through

the top half of the southern part of the building which

had been partially demolished.  We saw what I would

describe as a "heat haze" from the direction of Areas 1 

and II.  Initially there was no flame but within literally

a second or two flames shot into the air above section 25.

We could just see the tops of the high vessels but not

the rest of the section,  I would put the height of the flames

at approximately 70 or 80 ft.  There was a lot of blue in

the flames and I think there was smoke at the same time.

It also appeared as though the flames were shooting out

behind the heat haze but this is not altogether clear in

my mind.

We had only been looking at the flames for a moment

or two when there was a huge blast which knocked me 15 or

20 yards in a westerly direction. Frankly I was not

conscious of any movement but at one moment I was standing

watching the flame and the next I was simply lying on

the other side of the road which runs in a north south

direction to the west of the Oleum control room. I

can remember no noise between the original sound which

I heard and the huge blast but I would assess the time

which had elapsed at approximately 30 seconds.  There

is no doubt in my mind, however, that I saw flames

before the second bang occurred although the second

explosion followed almost immediately upon the sighting

of the flames.

After I had recovered a little from being flung

across the road I regained my feet and ran between the

Pyrites Store and the new Acid Plant in a westerly

direction towards the bank of the river Trent.  I seem

to remember seeing Bill Lodge running from the Plant

and three or four of the boiler men.  From the river

bank I was taken to hospital and I can remember little

more about the events of that day.

The only other experience I have of difficulties

in the factory was when there was a fire on the Hydrogen

Plant.  Apart from this incident I know of no other

particular difficulties suffered by the Plant in the

last three years.

JAMES DEANS

Statement taken by Herbert Smith & Co. on 12th June,1974.

Now for parts of the story that haven't been written (or if they have I haven't seen them)

I landed about fifty feet from where we'd been looking. I must have been unconscious for less than a minute I guess. Acid tanks were either side of me, but miraculously they hadn't ruptured. I've always maintained that what saved our lives and that of the villagers of Amcotts across the River Trent was the reinforced concrete wall of a new warehouse still under construction deflecting the blast upwards. Mind you, it was the roof trusses landing on my back and legs that caused my injuries. I had deep bruising and displaced adipose tissue which I can still feel today.

Most of us on Area 3 once we'd recovered headed for the wharf, the line of immediate safety.
If the ensuing fire reached the large ammonia tank then even Scunthorpe would be in danger of being wiped off the map.
The majority of us were running for our lives. I did hear later that Jan from Mousehole, Cornwall went back to see if he could help anyone. There were other heroes that day, but Jan from Area 3 is the only one I recollect.

I later learned that our PCT (Process Control Technician) Harry had run towards the opposite door when the blast happened and he ended up underneath it covered in rubble.
Later when the fire and rescue teams reached our control room, they could here a voice but couldn't find him until they realised they'd been walking over the door he was under.
Harry was hospitalised for a while, but recovered well enough to live to a good age.

Now while we ran for safety it was later reported that a certain senior worker and of almost retirement age (I don't remember his name, but he was a bit of a character), overtook everyone to get to the road first with a broken ankle !
By the time we'd reached the road, the Fire and Rescue services were just about on the scene, but were being delayed by people who'd driven down to see what was happening.

Me and my best friend Colin were eventually taken up to the hospital.
Now what happened next has perplexed me ever since that day.
Because the blast had been so huge many buildings suffered damage in the neighbouring villages and even as far away as Scunthorpe. This caused dozens of minor (and maybe one or two major) injuries and suddenly the hospital was inundated.
After being dropped off just inside the hospital entrance a senior police officer on seeing me and Colin in our white overalls and walking OK, got hold of us and promptly put us on traffic control at the hospital gates. Of course, me and Colin knew no better so we ended up directing traffic for the next couple of hours.
It wasn't until months later that I thought about it and years later when I'd wished I'd found that senior officer and sued him for dereliction of duty and unnecessary suffering.
Here's a couple of guys, both injured and in obvious deep shock being made to prolong their distress because he couldn't do his job. If he is still alive and ever reads this I'd at least like an apology.
With respect to the families of those seriously injured and dead, me and Colin weren't the only ones to suffer.
Those couple of hours on point duty also had our families wondering if we were still alive.
My wife, looking after our four young daughters (the twins weren't yet 5 months old) was sick with not knowing, and when I eventually turned up the scene was one of unbelievable relief.
We didn't get any medical attention that day. Colin had damaged eardrums, and I've already mentioned my injuries.
I spent the following week with visits to the doctors and the hospital for x-rays and every day walking from my house to Bridges Road from where I could watch the plumes of black smoke still burning.
As well as the physical damage, for the next few years my nerves suffered. 
I'd get scared by the sound of lorries passing too close, and any loud noise would have me jumping out of my skin.
Years later I realised I'd cheated death and my outlook changed. Nothing bothers me any-more. 

Much has been written about what went wrong at Flixborough and it became a blueprint for countless Health and Safety directives as well as being used by the worlds fire services for training manuals.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion the press, especially local, were having a field day with interviews, stories and pictures. I was interviewed for the Yorkshire Post though I never saw a copy.
My wife though kept a few cuttings and  after all these years in a brown envelope are almost turning to dust.Here are the ones I've managed to scan.

The first eight are from the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph.

    All the above pictures from the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph

These next two from the Sunday Mirror

And three from the Daily Mirror

So that's my story for posterity.

Here's a Youtube clip from the time.


My next post, part 2 will be to publish what I think might have been the last issue of the company magazine the 'Nypress', which includes tributes to the 28 men who lost their lives.