Retired journalist Alan Bell had just finished his evening meal at home when he found out that Summerland was on fire. At that time, he was a freelance reporter based at Manx Radio, and provided copy for the Press Association and the Isle of Man Courier.
Mr Bell, aged 78, of Ballaquane Park, in Peel, said: ‘I had just finished my evening meal when [veteran journalist] Terry Cringle phoned to say Summerland was on fire and I’d better come into the office.
‘At that stage it was just a fire. I jumped into the car and set off for Douglas. As soon as it came into view I could see this large plume of smoke rising over the fire.
‘The office at Manx Radio looked straight over the bay. I could see that Summerland was ablaze from end to end.
‘It made a really indelible impression.’
He said the rest of the night ‘became a bit of a blur’.
While Mr Cringle raced to the scene to interview bystanders and eye-witnesses, Mr Bell manned the newsroom telephone. In the early stages, it wasn’t clear whether there had been any fatalities.
But he said ‘all hell broke loose’ after it was broadcast by the BBC that a number of bodybags had been carried away from the scene.
‘Phone lines immediately became jammed as families tried to establish whether their nearest and dearest were involved, while holidaymakers tried to phone home and reassure their families they were OK.’
They worked through the night, covering the developing tragedy, with the Press Association keeping a phone line open so they could receive updates all night.
He remembers that as dawn broke the following morning, he could see smoke/steam drifting away from the site.
‘We just carried on phoning news copy around the world to radio and TV stations including America, Canada and Australia.
‘It really was a world story. Unfortunately tragedies like this always are.’
Certain parts of the night remain really vivid in his mind 40 years on, he said.
They include when the then manager of Manx Radio, Peter Kneale, arrived with a bottle of whisky to ‘keep us going through the night’.
He said: ‘The story went on for weeks, months, years even, as the fine details of the disaster emerged.’
Mr Bell retired in 1999. By then, he was the news editor of Isle of Man Newspapers.
He said: ‘Summerland was a terrible tragedy.
‘There’s no shadow of a doubt, it was the biggest story I ever worked on – and never wanted to work on.’