Colonial Wharf Fire

The second big fire of 1935 was described as "one of the fiercest and most spectacular fires seen in London for many years", even after the gas works blaze a few months earlier.

The fire was detected at about 3.30 in the afternoon of Wednesday the 25^th September, when a "curling wisp of smoke" was seen coming from one of the upper windows of the warehouse. Soon after the smoke was spotted, a glimpse of flame could be seen through the windows and the alarm was raised and the building was cleared of workers.

A  map of the area in 1926.

Colonial Wharves sit on the riverside,
in the centre of the picture

The warehouse was 7 floors high and was part of stretch of warehouse on Wapping High Street owned by Colonial Wharves Limited and was described as the largest warehouse complex on that part of the river. The warehouse had only been built two years earlier (though the name Colonial Wharves had been present on the site for many years), and stored rubber, tea and oriental goods. Its location was broadly where Cinnabar Wharf is today.

The Times reported that the warehouse was in what was known as “the danger zone”, presumably referring to the number of warehouses with precious (and potentially flammable) goods stored within. As a result, a district call was circulated immediately (requesting support from across the district and not just the home station), but the flame took hold with astonishing speed and very shortly a brigade call (requesting support from across the brigade) was sent out, bringing pumps from across London.

By the time the Fire Brigade arrived, the fire had reached the top floor and was burning on both the High Street and riverside of the warehouse. Tall water towers were set up along the High Street, and hoses were aimed at the warehouse from the surrounding roofs.

The scale of the blaze was such that despite the entire resources of the London Fire Brigade being called out for a long time the fire was beyond their control, and their efforts were focussed on preventing the spread of the flames, which were described as as burning some 70 or 80 foot high above the building, burning like a great brazier and visible from some distance away.

(L) Fire from the riverside; (R) From the landside

However, deployment by the Fire Brigade was not without problem and various appliances were held up by both mechanical failure and misfortune. The local firemen first on the scene complained of a lack of sufficient pressure, with the water falling short of the fire. However, this was compounded by the delay experienced by back-up appliances arriving, as pumps heading over Tower Bridge were held up by the passage of shipping, which not only made it necessary to open Tower Bridge, but then once across the river, swing bridges over Wapping High Street had been opened to allow ships in an out of the docks. All the while, the fire was growing in ferocity.

In addition to appliances on the landside three fire-fighting river floats, including the new craft Massey Shaw, described as one of the most powerful of its kind in the world, came down the Thames. and got as close as they could, pumping river water onto the fire. However, as with the land appliances the river appliances did not enjoy plain sailing.

The Massey Shaw
Photo courtesy of the Massey Shaw Education Trust

On arriving at the scene the fireboats found a large number of lighters (barges used for unloading moored ships) blocking access to the warehouse from the river. However, the lighters found new purpose, as when the tide started going out, the fireboats were forced away from the warehouse and into the middle of the river. The enterprising men of the London Fire Brigade took adversity by the hand and used the lighters as a platform to fight the fire from, hooking up longer hoses to the fireboats sat in the middle of the river.

The Times reported that a little more than an hour and a half after it was first detected the roof of the warehouse fell in and the flames roared up to a great height, and at the same time the fire began to creep relentlessly downward through the floors of the warehouse.

Great crowds massed on the Bermondsey side of the river to see the spectacle of the fireboats fighting the massive fire, whilst pleasure boats filled up with people seeking the best view point of the fight. Interest did not subside as the sunset and in the evening men and women in evening dress were spotted leaving theatres and heading over to Tower Bridge to watch the fire.

The Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade, Major Morris, was in command, and led the operation using a megaphone. Major Morris’ position was marked out by a flashing red electric light, which was ineffectual given the dense smoke drifting over his position and the smoke formed clouds that cut out sunlight enveloping Wapping in penumbra.

Keen to engage his students in fire safety, Mr. J. R. Lilly, the headmaster of Hermitage elementary school for boys, perhaps with a cavalier attitude, marched the boys onto the street to watch the fire and proceeded to lecture them on fire drills and precautions against fire.

The police formed a cordon keeping a long section of the High Street clear for the firemen, but large crowds gathered wherever it was possible to get a glimpse, and there was some alarm among residents in dwellings in the neighbourhood, who anxiously watched for any possibly dangerous change in the direction of the wind.

The Times said that with the fire burning furiously “the scene as night fell was remarkable, and in a sense magnificent...the top three floors of the building were still burning furiously, as though the concentrated force of a score of jets of water thrown through the shattered windows at the front and rear had had no effect whatever, and the flames were steadily working downward and even appearing fitfully through the windows of the adjoining block”.

The warehouse’s structural integrity looked increasingly vulnerable, and all but one of the fire engines had to be moved away from the warehouse incase the wall fell down. Despite the danger, hoses continued to feed water onto the flames from the pavement opposite and from the roofs of surrounding building. So many hoses were in use that firemen had to pick their footing carefully in the small gaps between hoses to make their way up and down the street.

Picture courtesy of the Massey Shaw Education Trust

Those  fears of the building’s collapse were well founded. At about 7 o'clock a huge crane on the river front of the building, collapsed and crashed on to the lighters on the foreshore in front of the warehouse. With the crane came falling masses of flaming rubber which set fire to the lighters, momentarily requiring the fireboats to redirect their attentions to the lighters that had been providing a platform to fight the fire from.

Then, sometime later, the end wall of the warehouse began to struggle. The Times reported that “a large portion of one of the flank walls fell with a roaring noise and with the renewed burst of flame went up a fountain of sparks which was carried half a mile or more high up in the wind”.

It was expected that the fire would burn all night, and, to meet the emergency, the Chief Officer took the unusual step of retaining both the day and the night watches of the Brigade on duty. In trying conditions one fireman was reported to have broken an arm while running to avoid some falling wreckage, and another had gashed his thumb.

By 11.30pm the fire was blazing more furiously than ever and had made its way to the ground floor. By this point much of the riverside and side walls had collapsed, but still the High Street wall stood seven floors tall, some eight hours after the fire had broken out.

As time passed, so returned the tide and two of the fire boats were able to move in range of the warehouse, “throwing tons of water under tremendous pressure on to the flames” albeit “without apparent result”.

However, by midnight the fire brigade were achieving “some slight effect”, and by 12.30 a.m. it was declared to under control and unlikely to spread further. However, the fire continued to burn.

The firemen had been successful at keeping the fire within the one warehouse. Although at one point it spread into an adjacent tea warehouse. They were quickly prevented from spreading beyond the wall.

Firemen with “half a lifetime's experience had never seen a fire so stubborn”. For much of the day the wind had been kind, but a change of direction forced smoke down and along the High Street and keeping the firemen in a dense fog with the searchlights placed to direct the aim of the hoses making pale gleams in the darkness.

From time to time thunderous crashes were heard, telling of the collapse of floors within the building or of further pieces of the outer wall. On the riverside the scene of ruin was even more, complete. Most of the riverside wall fell down and at low tide its wreckage lay on the mud mixed with that of the giant crane, smashed lighters and masses of crude rubber.

Superintendent Breaks, Chief of the Sheffield Fire Brigade happened to be in London at the time and was provided a uniform by the London Fire Brigade. Part of the reason that the riverside, and not the High Street facing wall collapsed may possibly be attributed to the sheer power of the Massey Shaw’s pumps:

Over a hundred firemen were still at work. And they had literally, literally cut the building apart with the aid of a jet three inches in diameter from a fire float, Massey Shaw, named after London's first Fire Chief.

"The pressure on this jet was so great that masonry weighing half a ton was washed away with it. From a 150-feet crane we looked down upon the 100-feet high flames which were still raging when I left.

However, whilst this might seem to be a defect in the equipment, The Times reported this to be exactly was was needed:

Yesterday the efforts of the firemen who have been engaged for the last three days in combating the fire were directed to battering down the remains of the dividing wall between the back of the warehouse and the river, so that the fire floats could swamp the interior of the building. Powerful jets of water were hurled against the wall, which held out for some time before collapsing and giving the lines of hoses more direct access.

The rubber which had not burnt melted and dribbled into the river on one side and the High Street on the other. The Age reported the drains became blocked from the rubber pouring in and Superintendent Breaks that as he approached the building at first the ground was sticky with molten rubber, and as he advanced the depth of the molten mass became greater until he was wading up to our knees.

The sheer volume of water needed, estimated as some millions of gallons, meant that the water supply of residents nearby was severely reduced a state of affairs that lasted for several days as the firemen continued to extinguish the last of the fire.

Even before the fire was out, insurance underwriters were notified of possible losses under a large number of contracts. Initial estimates of losses were £60,000 of rubber for two specific contracts, £18,000 on copper and a substantial amount of spelter (zinc or a zinc alloy). In total it was estimated that 2,000 tons of rubber had been destroyed and about 1,000 tons damaged. Newspaper estimates put the loss at between £250,000 and £1 million.

Over the operation, 400 firemen had been deployed, with most wearing gasmasks. The fire burned from Wednesday 25^th of September until Sunday 29^th of September and the Fire Brigade did not leave until the 1^st of October. The entire reserve stock of fire hose was used by the Fire Brigade in attending the fire and required special authorisation by the Deputy Chair of the LCC for the Fire Brigade to spend £1,800 on replacement hose. 22 million gallons of water was pumped from the land side and a phenomenal 48 million gallons from the fire floats. To pump this amount of water the fire engines used 6,781 gallons of petrol and the boats used 3,395 gallons of vaporizing oil and 870 gallons of diesel. To keep all those pumps working some 250 gallons of lubricating oil and 56lb of grease was required, indicating the workload put on the engines. In total 11 miles of hose was in use.

The long task of rolling up the 11 miles of fire hose.

Further amounts of rubber must have been lost to the river, and enterprising denizens down river appear to have taken it upon themselves to assist with clearing up the lost rubber. Henry Brown, 37, of Baring Road, Lee, Walter Henry Donnelley, 28, of Sunfields Place, Blackheath, both marine store dealers, and Daniel Costin, 38, waterman, of Highbridge, Greenwich, found themselves in front of the Magistrate on the 1^st of October and were remanded on a charge of stealing by finding or feloniously receiving 16 bales of raw rubber, valued at £50.

One happy story following the fire was that several days after the fire first broke out, a cat and two kittens were found in the wine vault of the warehouse, safe and sound despite the blazing fire taking place immediately above them. Even after the fire was out wildlife continued to be affected. A policeman on duty in Old Gravel Lane (Garnet Street), saw a swan standing on a log of wood in Shadwell Basin plucking at the feathers on its breast, which were smothered in a thick black substance similar to oil. The officer contacted the RSPCA. The RSPCA attended and caught the swan with a rope and took it Putney, where it was discovered that the substance with which the bird was covered was liquid rubber, which had formed a black patch on the water which the bird had landed on. The King's Swan Master reported treating several swans which had been similarly affected.

After WW2, part of the warehouse and others laid in ruins.

After WW2, the part of Colonial Wharves that didn't burn
in the fire suffered from bombing and lost its roof.

News Reels

See also these links to contemporary news reels.

News Reel 1

News Reel 2

Sources:

LFB
The Times
The Age
Spokane Daily Chronicle
Sheffield Fire Brigade History
Isle of Dogs Life (modern photos of Massey Shaw)
A big thanks to the Massey Shaw Education Trust for giving permission to use some of their photos. Visit their site to find out more about the now restored fire boat.

Photos

The LFB have a good selection of photos on their site here  a few watermarked photos are shown below. Unfortunately the LFB haven't responded to my request to licence some photos so I can't include any here.