Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A preliminary survey of fatal fires in 1968 shows that in reports received by 10th February 1969 there have been 628 fatal fires of which 89 have resulted in more than one death. There were 809 deaths in these incidents, only nine less than the previous highest annual total of 818 (in 1963). The two most serious incidents in the last quarter of the year were at a hotel in Brighton involving seven deaths and, on the following day, a fire in a Glasgow furniture warehouse in which 22 people died. Other serious incidents in the earlier part of the year included a mental hospital (24 deaths), a Boeing 707 (5 deaths), collapse of a block of high flats after an explosion (4 deaths) and several incidents in multiple occupancy dwellings and hotels. Five firemen died through injuries received whilst fighting fires.