Deadly night which changed everything

Around midnight on February 26, 1968, a fire was discovered at Shelton psychiatric hospital. Amid the flames and choking smoke, 24 patients lost their lives on a locked ward. It was among Britain's worst hospital fires. Conditions at Shelton had long come in for severe criticism and in the aftermath there was a inquiry.

The Ministry of Heath report blasted the lack of training given to nurses in fire procedure.

And then on April 2 five died in a blaze at a hotel in Church Stretton. The victims were three brothers, a maid, and a waitress.

Mike Bickford was a young firefighter at the time and by chance was involved in both calls, being among some of the first firefighters on the scene at Shelton.

"It was such a groundbreaking event and such a terrible event. There was a big change after that fire and quite rightly so. I think it was the end of an era for people with mental health issues," he said.

Mike, who is 72, lives now in Oswestry, but at the time was living in a fire service house in Wenlock Road, Shrewsbury, and based at the old fire station at Cross Hill in the county town. He had joined Shropshire's fire service in November 1963 and became familiar with the psychiatric hospital at Shelton through fairly frequent visits when patients had set off the fire alarms.

Something struck him about the place.

"When I think back I can only compare it with the sort of pictures you saw of concentration camps. You would go on the wards and some of them would be standing with their heads bowed, drugged, and in similar clothing. They would be like zombies."

The fateful call came somewhere around midnight on the night of February 25-26 and he says the firefighters assumed it was another callout caused by a patient breaking the glass of the fire alarm.

Then aged 22, he was on White Watch, led by Sub Officer Dennis Trumper - father of well-known Shrewsbury historian and author David Trumper.

Mike thinks, but is not sure, that the driver of their appliance was Jim Prince. They arrived at the building and were about to get off and get ready when a nurse came running up.

"She climbed in the appliance and said 'Round the back! Round the back!' At that time we had no idea what we were going to be confronted with. We went round the back. There was quite a severe fire in one area and smoke coming out from various parts of the building."

The cries of the women patients have haunted him since.

Mike says two fire appliances had arrived at the scene at the same time, and firefighters Nick Morris and George Fletcher donned breathing sets and were the first inside.

Soon casualties were being brought out.

"The ambulances had not arrived and there were hardly any staff about. I opened a ward up on the ground floor and pushed some beds back and started a casualty reception area. I went and grabbed a resuscitator from one of the appliances, called the Stephenson Minuteman."

He began going round those rescued trying to find who were still alive, and trying to save them.

More help was arriving, more patients were being brought out and taken away, and meanwhile the fire was being brought under control.

"It was extremely intense," says Mike.

And in the immediate aftermath, there was a curious incident.

"They had brought an urn and we were having a cup of tea after everything had settled down. Jim Prince picked up a piece of paper, a letter, obviously written by a patient. He read it. It said: 'I'm fed up with this effing place. I'm going to effing burn it down,' or something like that.

"It was rather strange. I think we handed it to the police. It was never used as evidence. I would assume that this sort of thing was probably quite common."

According to the report released in December that year the fire was "almost certainly" caused by a lit cigarette end left in an easy chair.

Mike said: "From this fire a load of legislation came along. The standards were increased dramatically, even more so after the hotel fire at Church Stretton which was quite a game changer."

Again, as chance would have it, he was on duty with White Watch and arrived to find the roof well alight. The local firefighters from Church Stretton had already been in action and retrieved the boys. He and a colleague went in to the building wearing breathing equipment, and as they searched the jet of a hose brought down part of the roof on them, with a piece of wood hitting Mike on the back of the helmet.

They were to find two female victims.

"The Church Stretton fire would not have happened if there had been fire precautions in there," said Mike.

"It was a very bad year, there was no question about it. When I reflect back it was probably the worst few months in my career."

The consequences were far reaching, with legislation coming in which greatly increased the responsibilities and workload of the fire service.

"I moved on into fire safety - we were all operational officers as well. I did 30 years, retiring in 1994."

Among other memorable incidents in his long career is Shrewsbury's extraordinary luck when in February 1993 a petrol tanker tipped on its side at Frankwell and spilled its cargo, leaving the town just one spark away from a huge fireball.

"To this day I don't think anybody who was involved in the job can comprehend what would have happened. We were so, so lucky. It had spread from one end of the town to the other. Cars were swilling about in it. They were moving through petrol as though it was water. And there was not a single ignition."