“It was like the Blitz all over again”, said one of the nearby residents when on the evening of Thursday 24th September, 1970, the Calor gas bottle storage depot in Church Road, Mitcham, caught fire. Gas bottles flew through the air raining chunks of hot metal onto houses and streets. The explosion was heard as far away as Battersea.

The following are from two issues of the local newspaper reporting the fire and the decision by the company not to store gas bottles at their depot any more.

25th September 1970, page 1, Mitcham News & Mercury

From the Mitcham News in Mercury, Friday 25th of September, 1970.

Protests after a blaze

Why was this depot allowed here, say the residents.

Mitcham’s biggest fire for years brought terror to hundreds of families on Wednesday night
when exploding gas cylinders flew over rooftops, crashing into houses and showering passers-by
with pieces of red-hot metal. Yesterday Thursday, fire officers were trying to find the cause of the blaze which destroyed a large bottling plant of Calor Gas Limited, Church Road. People living in about 50 surrounding houses were evacuated while 100 firemen tackled the flames which could be seen for miles. Incredibly no one was seriously hurt.
Police continually warned the crowds of the danger of further flying canisters. The fire had a strong hold before it was noticed and by then the cylinders, some weighing as much as 300 weight, began to explode. They shot into the street over houses, landing on roofs and embedding themselves in walls. Several parked cars were hit. Mr Harry Neil, Hawthorne Road, heard something crash into his roof and he found a smouldering piece of metal balanced on the rafters.
I thought it would set fire to the house, he said. I wrapped it in towels and threw it into the garden.
Then I got my family outside and away from the fire. Mr Alfred Willoughby, Church Road, was watching television when it all happened. There was a terrific bang. I ran upstairs and I saw a hole in the roof and a large piece of jagged metal in the loft. There was a series of about 40 explosions, one after the other, just like the Blitz,
all over again. Mrs Marilyn Carlin, Oakwood Road, said, I was walking down the road towards my father’s
house when red-hot metal pieces and whole cylinders shot from the factory and fell around
me. I rang the notify and screamed and rang to the nearest house. Walking down Church Road with her two young children was 27-year-old Mrs Diane Goode. I had never been so frightened in my life, she declared. Metal fell like rain, yet none of it actually touched us. People living more than 100 yards from the blaze said the windows of their homes were
too hot to touch and, in fact, many of them cracked. Others pointed to holes in the side of their houses where pieces of the canisters had ploughed into the brickwork. The explosions were heard up to ten miles away and the 60-foot flames could be seen from Battersea. This area of Mitcham is saturated with factories and warehouses and today, Friday, families demand inaction to make their homes safer. Last year, a plastics factory not far away was destroyed and several houses were in danger. Mrs Joan Dorrington, Hawthorn Road, and her neighbour, Mrs Mary Berry, are planning a
petition. 27-year-old Mrs Dorrington said, We are going to start tonight, Thursday, and get everyone in the area to sign it. Then we will send it to Merton Council demanding that the depot should not be rebuilt. Surely no one thinks they should put it up again and go on storing gas there the same as before. It would be madness. Whatever we do, we are going to make sure that our children don’t have to live with this threat hanging over their heads.
It’s not fair to us, said Mrs Dorrington. It seems we have been sitting on a time bomb without realising it, and we don’t want this to occur again. It’s madness to have industry so near private homes. And Mr Willoughby, the man whose corner house was struck, said, When Mitcham has a fire, it’s always a big one.
Now perhaps something will be done to make our lives a little less dangerous.
It was nearly dawn before families were allowed to return to their homes, although for some
there will be no questioning of living there until essential roof repairs are carried out.
One semi-detached house was particularly badly damaged with the rear wall ripped out.
Apart from the Calor Gas plant, two adjoining factories, Suffolk Cubes Limited and Moughan Macken Limited, were also damaged. In charge of the firefighting operations was Assistant Chief Officer R. R. Lloyd, who said,
The blaze was brought under control fairly easily, but we had appliances standing by
all night in case there were more explosions. A spokesman for the Calor Gas company could see no reason for making any changes to the arrangements for gas storage. They have been checked and passed by the fire brigade, he said.
At the moment we have our own experts on the site investigating the cause, and until that is determined we can give no indication whether or not gas will be stored there in the future.

2nd October 1970 issue of the Mitcham News and Mercury, page 1

Mitcham News and Mercury, Friday October 2nd 1970.

Gas Depot is closing.
Victory for common sense.

The Calor Gas company announced on Tuesday that they would not continue storing gas cylinders
at their depot in Church Road.
The decision has been taken, say the company, in view of the feelings of residents and the
need for a site more conveniently located to their customers.
Residents who pledge themselves to stop the further storage of gas on the site are delighted
with what they call this victory for common sense. The chairman of the Phipps Bridge Tennis Association, Mr. Ken Peters, said, We appreciate the company’s attitude, but we should still be making representations
to the council against the storage of inflammable materials and volatile chemicals which we
know is going on in the area. On Tuesday night he addressed the first committee meeting of the new Mitcham Community Association. All the association’s members live near the site of the fire and first met on Sunday morning
outside the new Bath Tavern on the Phipps Bridge Estate. Among the crowd of 200 were several people who claimed they would be prepared to lie down in front of lorries in order to stop more gas containers being brought into the
area. This will no longer be necessary, but there is still an intense feeling of anger at the
council for having allowed firms in the area to use or store inflammable materials.
A map was produced showing a further 15 companies in the area, all of which the association
considered to be possible fire risks. But their main concern was that there should be so many factories in the area in the first place. Mr. Peters explained, The former Mitcham Council designated this
area for residential purposes and their plans included the destruction of the factories
and the building of houses and flats. When the London Borough Merton was formed in 1965, these plans were handed over to the new council together with a surplus on the housing revenue account with which to carry
them out. But what has in fact happened is that the factories are still standing, the Phipps Bridge
Estate was never finished and though they want to build a car parking woman and world
Mitcham has been left high and dry. The association are now to ask for an interview with the Mayor to discuss what will be done to prevent another fire. A great part of their dissatisfaction with the council stems from the fact that they
claim they have been ignored by their councillors. Councillor H.T. Sims, who lives in Baron Grove, said on Wednesday,
I really haven’t had a chance to go and see the people. I suppose I should have done, but I shall be getting in touch with them soon. MPs on the other hand have shown more interest in the disaster.
Mr. Robert Carr and Miss Janet Fuokes have visited the site and spent some time talking
to the people whose homes were damaged. Mr. Carr promised the right to the Home Secretary, expressing their feelings.
The police, the fire brigade and the Salvation Army are also to get letters in which
the association will thank them for the work they did on the night. The Salvation Army volunteers turned out at 3am to serve tea and biscuits to the people who had to leave their homes.
But there are also a great many people standing in the streets who had nothing to do with
the fire at all. Police said that many of them had come from the other side of London just to watch the
blaze and they hampered the work of the fire brigade. These ghouls always turn up whenever there is a disaster, said one policeman. They always seem to be the same kind of people and they are invariably a nuisance.
I rather fancy many of them hope to see bodies being dragged from the fire.
But although no one was hurt at this time, the association are worried about what may
happen on Guy Fawkes night. It only needs someone to throw a firework in the wrong direction for the whole lot to
go up, said one member. It was suggested that maybe a firework display could be staged in Ravensbury Park and Mrs.
L. Oxley, who keeps a shop in Oakwood Avenue and sells fireworks, gave parents a few tips
on safety measures. The best system, she said, is for children to order the fireworks beforehand and then
the parents can collect them on the day. The trouble comes when older boys buy them for their younger brothers.
A full report on the circumstances of the fire was presented to the Town Planning and
Development Committee last night Thursday. In the meantime, the Town Clerk, Mr. Sidney Austin, gave his assurance that the site had been leased by Calor gas on condition that they comply with the most stringent safety
precautions. All of these had been adhered to, he said, and in fact the company even instituted a
few of their own. They know better than anyone else for precautions needed in storing these containers, and this
was their first accident in 35 years. The site will probably now be used for storing some innocuous material.

A video is available on the YouTube channel where thses reports are read and includes colour photos by Eric Montague:

Comments from that video:

I was one of the first crew of 4 from Mitcham fire station on scene, our other engine had been sent to a big fire at Richmond just a few minutes before this call came in, our leading fireman called for more machines twice on the radio before leaving the cab. Myself and another fireman had taken a hose up the side alley to spray the cylinders to cool them, we pulled a wooden pallet to try and protect ourselves as the cylinders exploded, we couldn’t get out !! The driver and leading fireman, dealt with 2 serious house fires on their own. My pal and I eventually managed to get out of the alley and as a canteen wagon had just arrived we went to it, we were knackered, a divisional officer came up to us whilst we were drinking our tea and called us lazy B’s, needless to say my pal told him we were from Mitcham, he apologised and went red. I had only been at the station for a few weeks and in the job for about 4 months but it wasn’t the first ‘big job’ I’d been on in that time at Mitcham. The area had lots of old factories besides this site, there were Pains fireworks, Pye records, A big paint factory and a Victorian workhouse with industry in it plus several more places I can’t remember. This brought back memories, thank you.

My cousin, who worked on the site, helped the firemen to find their way around the place, in the morning we were told that some canisters were found over a quarter of a mile away…

Remember this so well. Living in Mount Road, we wasn’t far from the site. Dad woke me up and told me to go and find out what was going on. Outside lots of people running, not away but towards the fire. So we all watched from the junction with Church Road..

The stupid thing is that the cylinders have an overpressure release valve to prevent explosions. But most of them don’t work.