Halfords Fire

[mariegriffiths]

The night of the 12th march 1955
It is in my Grandmother's letter.

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[aggie2347]

Another action picture of the Halfords Incident. A lot of the water used for firefighting was pumped from a Well in the Fire Station yard this needed to be topped up frome the Stations mains water supply which was fitted with a meter by-pass valve. Unfortunately, the by-pass was never opened and it was rumoured that the Brigade had to pay the water bill?

 

[Brummie 43]

Well the way it was told to me, it was a fireman who caused the inferno!
I worked at Halfords in the 70s and some of the older workers who had been working there at the time told me that a fire had started somewhere in the building during the night and due to a lack of oxygen had merely smouldered all night.
In the morning someone walking past on his way to work brushed his hand against one of the walls and realised the concrete was hot so he went over to the central fire station across the road and told them
The firemen raced over to the building and finding everything locked up, one of them smashed the glass in the main door with his axe, thus giving the fire the oxygen it needed and the whole place went up in minutes
As a footnote, when Halfords built their new warehouse in Redditch they provided rest rooms all over the warehouse where anybody could go to have a smoke anytime they wanted, the reasoning being that they didn't want to risk another fire with people sneaking behind fixtures for a crafty fag!

Crom, I think that picture was taken a long, long time before the Halford's fire. Probably at the time that they put in those traffic islands in front of the fire station, which was brand new, in about 1933. The pic below (postcard I bought in Woollie's, Lozells road about 1951) shows how it was before the building work started.
The tram in the picture was on either the Witton via Six Way route 3 (closed in October 1939 as a war economy measure) or the Perry Barr route 6, which closed on 31 December 1949 (I was on the last tram). I can't believe they relayed the tracks again between 1933 and 1949.
Peter

Hi Peter just spotted a pic of halfords the date is wrong I was twelve when halfords Burned down in 1955 my dad worked at a drop forgers opposite I used to take his lunch he was working night shift when it went up in flames he allways said it was the sparkes from the furnaces that could have caused it but it was only a theory I watched the clear up over a few weeks and scrounged some useful bike parts that escaped flames.i lived at the top of Gough street the flames lite up Brum for hours I was a bit of an adventurer so I sneaked out for a look the were fire engines from all over what a story to tell at school next day.they think the fire burned low down in the building before it climbed and that’s why there was a delay.but who knows

 

[Ray Griffiths]

Halfords Fire was 12th March 1955 it burnt for 7days. A cleaner walking past the roller doors to the loading bay noticed smoke coming from under the door and alerted the fire brigade. Fire serviice on arrival manage to get roller door opened which allowed air to shoot up lift shaft which was the rear of loading bay causing flames to start fire on all floors. Halfords building was rebuilt and reopened in 1958.

 

[aggie2347]

Added a picture o

 

[Bilthoven]

Added a picture View attachment 187282o

I worked for Halfords in Redditch until 2013. When I left there was still a wooden bench in one of the main corridors with a plaque on it stating it was the only piece of furniture recovered from the 'great fire'. Given the cocktail of chemicals and oils in the warehouse it wasn't surprising that the fire burnt for 7 days.

The new warehouse in Redditch had, unsurprisingly, a massive water tank and sprinkler system fitted. Whenever there was a fire alarm practice or an accidental activation you have never seen so many colleagues exit a building so quickly and effectively!! I

I have copies of the Halfords 75 year and 100 years commemorative booklets which contain a lot of information about how the consequences of the fire were managed with quite a few pictures. A temporary warehouse was set up in Kyotts Lake Rd in Sparkhill which was once a tram depot.