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Middlesbrough up in flames!

But it wasn’t the German Luftwaffe that brought trouble to Middlesbrough that Friday. It was a fire of such intensity that within six hours the 4-storey building of Binns departmental store had been reduced to a charred shell.

It was to be the first of three major store fires, all within three months, that was to rob Middlesbrough of its shopping centre, the worst business set back the town has ever suffered.

Binns occupied the same corner site as it does today, bordered by Linthorpe Road and Newport Road, and the fire was discovered almost on closing time by the store manager Mr T.C. Hunter. The few remaining staff and fire watchers tried unsuccessfully to contain the outbreak which was believed to have started in the lino department. Within minutes the fire had spread and was totally out of control. Forty eight fire engines and auxiliary equipment from all over the North of England were rushed to the blaze, and 350 officers and men of the National Fire Service fought the flames enveloping one department after another. They used 40 jets to throw up a curtain of water around the building, drawing water from every conceivable source, including the nearby swimming baths. Even the fire boats on the River Tees were called in to add a million gallons to the hydrant supplies.
The heat was such that the firemen found themselves scorched and drenched at the same time.

Thousands of onlookers watched as servicemen on leave threaded their way through the miles of hosepipes to remove furniture from nearby shops that were threatened by the blaze.

The nearby Scala and Electric cinemas were evacuated as firemen damped down nearby properties to stop the blaze spreading.

Sightseers gasped as the the roof finally collapsed and showered a myriad sparks into the night air. By dawn only a smouldering shell and twisted girders remained of the town’s most prestigious store.

The Chief Constable of Middlesbrough at that time was Mr Alf Edwards, who later announced that there was no reason to suspect that the fire had been other than an accident. That might well have been the case, but there was no doubt about the cause of two further store fires that were to occur in Middlesbrough ten weeks later.

In the space of twenty-four hours, a 13 year old youth had set fire and destroyed E. Uptons and Sons in Linthorpe Road, and Dicksons and Bensons in Linthorpe Mews.

The Uptons blaze was started in the packing department and within minutes the store was burning with such ferocity that one onlooker likened it to a furnace burning in the very centre of the store. Ten fire pumps were rushed to the blaze which took over an hour to bring under control.

Almost before the firemen had damped down, they were back in action further down the road where fire fire broke out at lunch time the following day in Dicksons and Bensons, one of Teessides most elegant and oldest department stores.

An eye witness said he saw two men struggling to contain a small blaze just inside the premises in Linthorpe Mews. There did not appear to be any real danger until someone opened a door. With a roar the flames took hold and within minutes the store was a raging inferno and the flames bridged the Mews. Stanley Haggarth who was attached to Eston Fire Brigade, was one of 500 firemen who fought the blaze. He recalled at the time how he was operating a jet and one of his colleagues - Martin Durkin of Middlesbrough, was on a turntable ladder which caught alight. It was fortunate that Haggarth was on hand to turn his hose on it. 

So sever was the blaze that the outer walls collapsed and Haggath and his colleagues ran for cover and sheltered in the doorway of a mews cottage.
Many residents in the Mews were evacuated and taken to Hugh Bell School in Albert Road. The Dickson and Benson arcade acted as a wind tunnel which drove the blaze quickly from department to department. Many shops in the vicinity suffered from the flames and water damage, including other stores which have long ago closed down - Saltmers, A Donald, Mason and Sons and the Maypole Dairy.
By the following day (June 19th) Middlesbrough had lost a major part of its shopping area, and this was made all the more serious by war time restrictions that prevented any rebuilding until after the war.

Amazingly not one life was lost in these three major fires. Two in two days however, was too much of a coincidence for the Police, who with remarkable speed, arrested and charged a 13 year old boy who on the 23rd June, appeared before Midlesbrough magistrates charged under the Malicious Damages Act He was represented by Mr Alex Lauriston, a well known local solicitor.

The court heard that the boy had confessed to the offence and later, accompanied by police, he had been taken to the store’s warehouse site where he had pointed out the place where he had set fire to straw, paper and wood. There had been ten suites of furniture and other goods in the warehouse at the time and the youth also admitted to setting alight some barrels in the nearby Maypole Diary. The police were satisfied he was not connected with the earlier fire at Binns and they also absolved the boy’s 11 year brother from being involved with the offence.
Who was this boy? We shall never know because the magistrates (Alderman J. Wesley-Brown, and Mrs A Murphy), decided not to publish the offender’s name despite a request from the local press. But they sent the youth to an approved school. Ald Brown said that in his opinion the boy should have been birched -”But such a punishment has never been handed out in this this court in my time”. It was learned that at the age of eight, the boy had been placed on probation following a charge of warehouse breaking. His mother wept as he was led from court and said later that her son had worked hard selling from an old pram, his only product - firewood.

Then in 1970, Four hotel guests were still missing following a fire that destroyed the Hotel York in Redcar.Company director Mr Lawrence Smith of Esher Surrey, who had been visiting Teesside accompanied by his wife Shelia, were reported missing and feared dead. Also missing were Jan Aart Dijs a 45 year old plant manager, and his wife Jean from Haarlem Holland.

The fire was discovered by the night porter Mr Harold Hird in the early hours. He raised the alarm and firefighters rescued 17 guests by ladder from their bedroom windows Others escaped by making makeshift ropes from blankets and sheets.
As the blaze took hold staff worked with police to account for the guests staying overnight in the 29 bedroomed hotel.

One survivor Mr Keith Watson of St Albans described how he had escaped by using a sheet from his bed. He had been awakened by someone hammering on his door. In the corridor he saw people running all over the place, most of them getting clothes on. He put some clothes over his pyjamas and tried to get down the emergency exit but there was too much smoke. So he broke a bedroom window and and tied a sheet to the support.

Others who escaped talked of not hearing a fire alarm and Mr Charles Amer the owner of the £350,000 hotel, confirmed that the hotel 
no internal alarm system. 

A spokesman for the Home Office said there were no regulations requiring hotels to fit such systems. However a new Bill was going through Parliament requiring hotels to have such alarms in the future. 

A week later whilst searching the rubble, firemen came across human remains. They were sent to the Middlesbrough General Hospital for examination by a pathologist. A police spokesman said it was not possible to establish whether the remains were of more than one person.

Now, The Binns Management quickly acquired alternative temporary premises in Corporation Road, almost opposite the Odeon cinema. After the war, the store was rebuilt on its original site where it stands today as the town’s leading store..
Uptons was also rebuilt on its site in Linthorpe Road, but in recent years the company has struggled to be profitable and earlier this year it was announced that it is to close. 

Dickson and Bensons never recovered from their disaster and this store was to make way for what is now the site of the Dundas Arcade. 

The York hotel was rebuilt in Coatham Road Redcar in 1971, nd three years ago was sold by the Amer organisation to Coast and Country Hotels. It was renamed the Regency Hotel and added to the companies chain which includes The Park Hotel Redcar. Croft Spa Darlignton, The Marine Hotel Seaton Carew, and Park Head in county Durham. The chairman of the group is Yarm businessman Mr Malcolm McKee