What happened at King’s Cross underground station in 1987?

On 18 November 1987 at 19:30pm a fire broke out at King’s Cross underground station, London. King’s Cross is a major interchange station for London Underground lines so the station was very busy at the time of the incident.

The first of the firefighters entering the underground did so without breathing apparatus, instinctively rescuing lives. Later, even when equipped with the correct safety equipment, they could only operate for a limited amount of time due to the intense heat exposure.

How did the 1987 King’s Cross fire start?

It’s believed that a passenger on a moving escalator dropped a lit match onto rubbish and debris below, which ignited combustibles.

Many passengers were trapped as flames rushed up the wooden escalator. The staircase design acted as a chimney, funnelling the flames and drawing them up to the street above.

The intense heat damaged concrete at the main ticket hall - tragically this is where many of the victims lost their lives as intense heat and swirling black smoke engulfed them. Several hours after the fire had been extinguished the metal ticket boots were still too hot to touch.

What can the industry learn from the King’s Cross fire?

Two years prior to the incident London transport policy had actually banned smoking in Underground stations, but smoking persisted with the policy not sufficiently policed/enforced.

An inquest into the event discovered that between 1956 and 1988 there had been 46 escalator fires, with 32 of them attributed to smoking materials.

Once the escalator was alight due to the kindle material of rubbish and years of oil and grease build-up it became impossible to stop. Melting grease helped the flames stretch upwards as it moved along the escalator shaft, resulting in flashover.

Reconstruction study of the event proved this theory, which set about change to legislation as a result of the Fennel Report 1988.