Today (Friday) marks the 40th anniversary of one of the worst disasters in Manx history when 50 people were killed when a blazing inferno engulfed the Summerland leisure complex in Douglas.
About 3,000 holidaymakers were inside the seven-storey building when the fire started, shortly before 8pm on August 2, 1973, just over two years after it had opened.
It was the biggest death toll in a fire in peacetime since 1929.
Nine of the 50 fatalities were children, and a further 80 people were injured.
The fire was unintentionally started by three Liverpool boys who had broken into a kiosk next to the complex to smoke a cigarette.
On September 17, 1973, the boys – two of them 12 and the other 14 – appeared before Douglas Juvenile Court and admitted wilfully and unlawfully damaging the lock of a plastic kiosk next to Summerland.
They were each fined £3 and ordered to pay 33p compensation and 15p costs.
One of the boys told police: ‘We tried to stamp it out, but it got too hot and dangerous.’
They then ran away.
An inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure and found that there were ‘no villains’.
A public inquiry opened on November 18, 1973, and its report was published in May the following year.
The report made a series of recommendations, after saying the design of Summerland meant it was ‘vulnerable to the spread of fire’.
It drew attention to the waiving of a bye-law to permit the use of combustible Oroglas in the walls of Summerland, as well as to a neglected fire regulation and building errors and was also critical of the organisation and training of staff in firefighting.
But it corrected the widespread public impression that it played a primary role in the development and spread of the fire.
The inquiry was satisfied it was not ignited until there was ‘a very substantial fire’.
It added: ‘Of cardinal importance was the failure to call the fire brigade until 21 minutes after discovery of the fire.
‘If the fire brigade had been summoned within a minute of water first being applied to the fire, the building might have been saved.’
The report also called the use of Galbestos – steel sheeting with asbestos felt on both sides coated with bitumen – in the wall of the building an error of judgement.
The void in the wall, lined with a combustible inner surface on both sides – fibreboard and Galbestos – was a dangerous fire hazard and ‘a serious breach of good building practice’.
Summerland was later rebuilt to a different design and rebuilt and re-opened.
It shut for good in 2005.