Shropshire firefighter's memories of deadly dam disaster

A day or two after Mike Bickford had arrived in the country a landslide sent a vast chunk of mountainside plunging into the waters held by the Vajont dam.

It created a tsunami which cascaded over the top of the concrete dam wall – which remained intact – and into the valley below, killing an estimated 2,000 people in its path, totally destroying the community of Longarone.

The disaster was on October 9, 1963.

Mike, from Oswestry, had gone on a package holiday with a friend to Lido di Jesolo and during their two-week stay heard nothing of the tragedy, but that all changed when the time came to come home, which due to an air strike was by coach.

"We set off towards the Dolomites and Austria. Some distance into the Dolomites we noticed that the road had been replaced with a strip of new tarmac and either side of the strip was mud and boulders," said Mike.

"We approach a small town that I now know to be Longarone. It nestled in a valley. Most of the town was in the valley and some up the side of the mountain.

"We were shocked to see that the valley property was completely wiped away and you could see a line across the hillside where the water had washed away the buildings. Above that the homes were either intact or just the bottom half damaged.

"We had no idea of what had happened, only what we managed to glean later. It was not until we returned home that the full story emerged. Apparently the government and constructors had been warned that the mountainside was unstable but decided to build it anyway."

The last leg of the trip was a flight from Ostend to Southend in a converted DC3.

"It was raining when we took off and the one cabin crew that was on board had a mop and bucket clearing up the water that was running under the door.

"Looking back, I did not realise that I was going on a 'pioneering' holiday but when I first heard of the Whaley Bridge emergency the memories all came back," added Mike, who became a firefighter later that year.