The Summerland disaster occurred when a fire spread through the Summerland leisure centre in Douglas on the Isle of Man on the night of 2 August 1973. 50 people were killed and 80 seriously injured.
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Summerland was opened on 25 May 1971. A climate-controlled building covering 3.5 acres (14,000 m2) on Douglas's waterfront, consisting of 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) of floor area at a cost of £ 2 million. Summerland was designed to accommodate up to 10,000 tourists and comprised a dance area, five floors of holiday games, restaurants and public bars. It was a 1960s concrete design incorporating advanced controlled internal climate, built with novel construction techniques using new plastic materials. The street frontage and part of the roof was clad in Oroglas, a transparent acrylic glass sheeting.
The fire started around 7:30 pm in a small kiosk adjacent to the centre's mini-golf course. Eventually the burning kiosk slumped against the exterior of the building. This part of the building was clad in a material called Galbestos – profiled steel sheeting with asbestos felt on both sides coated with bitumen[1] – which had limited fire-resistance qualities. This set fire to the interior sound-proofing material, which also had poor fire-resistance qualities, causing an explosion which ignited the highly flammable acrylic sheeting which covered the rest of the building. The fire spread quickly across the sheeting on the leisure centre walls and roof, and through vents which were not properly fireproofed. The acrylic melted, which allowed more oxygen to enter and dropped burning melted material, both starting other fires and injuring those trying to escape. The building's open-plan design included many unblocked internal spaces that acted as chimneys adding to the conflagration.
The fire services were not called for almost thirty minutes, and even then the call did not originate from the centre. Instead the emergency call came via the captain of a ship located 2 miles (3.2 km) out at sea who radioed HM Coastguard and said "It looks as if the whole of the Isle of Man is on fire". The Coastguard immediately called the fire brigade.
There was no attempt to evacuate the 3,000 people present until the visible evidence of the flames prompted a panic-stricken mass rush for the exits, where many people were crushed and trampled because of the locked doors. Because of the locked fire doors many people headed to the main entrance, which caused a crush.
The first responding fire crews immediately realised additional resources would be required and almost every resource available to the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service was mobilised to the incident (93 of its 106 firefighters and all 16 of its engines).
50 people died in the fire. The number of fatalities was worsened by the failure of power supplies and emergency generators, inadequate ventilation and locked fire doors. The death-toll brought about a public inquiry which ran from September 1973 to February 1974. No specific individuals or groups were blamed and the deaths were attributed to misadventure: the delay in evacuation and the flammable building materials were condemned. Changes to Building Regulations to improve fire safety were introduced. The centre was seriously damaged by the fire. Its charred steel skeleton remains were demolished in 1975 and then rebuilt on a smaller scale, construction commenced in 1976, with a lot less glass area than the original and with a highly advanced fire extinguisher and alarm system, it re-opened in 1978. It finally closed in 2004 and was demolished in 2005. The east wall remains intact as there is concern that its removal may cause the adjacent cliff to collapse.
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