Fire.

Residents in Manor Road, Erith were rudely awakened in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A huge fire had occurred in an industrial unit behind residential housing towards the Eastern end of the very long road. The fire also affected householders in the side street off Manor Road called Appold Street. Numerous houses had to have their occupants evacuated as the fire spread rapidly. There were a number of extremely loud explosions as industrial gas canisters detonated due to the heat from the flames. The fire started sometime before 4:00 a.m. and around 70 firefighters and 10 fire appliances were assigned to the emergency. Resources were sent from fire stations around the southeast and also from parts of Essex to deal with the huge blaze as you can see from the photos above - thanks to those local residents who supplied them. Click on any one of them to see a larger view. The emergency services had concerns that the blaze might spread to residential properties in both Appold Street and in Manor Road. Efforts were also made to stop the flames from spreading to other industrial units nearby. Firefighters were on the scene from before 4:00 a.m. until around 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon after the flames had been subdued, and additionally the whole of Manor Road was closed to traffic due to safety concerns which caused major congestion in the centre of Erith and further afield.  Local police officers were noted to be going house to house knocking on people's front doors and asking if they had seen anything, or indeed had either CCTV footage or doorbell video which leads one to believe that there may be some suspicions that the cause of the fire may not have been natural, and could possibly be the result of arson - although at this stage this is not been confirmed. I understand that investigations are ongoing at the time of writing. Following this, four senior investigators from the London Fire Brigade visited the site and carried out their own investigations - the results of which are currently unknown. Concerns have been expressed by local residents over the close proximity of industrial facilities to residential areas with the likelihood of health and safety risks as a result. This is not the first fire to have taken place at the same location, although it is by far the worst. Bexley council have been contacted to ask for the industrial units to be closed down permanently. The level of damage and devastation to the area would indicate that any kind of rebuilding would require substantial investment, and in some locals opinion it would probably not be financially viable. It would also seem that industry and residential property do not mix, as has been abundantly proved by the huge and extremely dangerous fire. It has also been suggested that the large cost of extinguishing The blaze with over 70 firefighters on scene along with 10 fire appliances for a total of 12 hours along with the attendance of police officers and Thames Water engineers must have cost the taxpayer well in excess of £100,000, all due to a fire in an area that quite possibly should not have occurred in the first place. Comments and feedback to me as usual at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Friday the 6th June marked the anniversary of the D-Day landings. Many people do not realise that the local area had an important role in the supply of logistics to the troops who landed at Normandy, and who went on to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation. The photo above (click on it for a larger view) shows the Pipeline Under The Ocean (PLUTO) control room during operations in late 1944. Much of the multiple PLUTO pipe infrastructure was constructed in and around Erith in the middle to late phases of World War II. The technology developed was later put to very good effect and made the United Kingdom one of the world centres for oil and gas engineering, something that is still true to this day. There is a lot of history in the local area relating to this stunning feat of military and civil engineering, and a handful of those involved in the project are still alive now. PLUTO, the WW2 Pipeline Under the Ocean, was designed to supply petrol from storage tanks in southern England to the advancing Allied armies in France in the months following D-Day. A reliable supply of petrol for the advancing Allied forces following the D-Day landings was of the highest priority. Planners knew that the future invasion of Europe would be the largest amphibious landing in history, and without adequate and reliable supplies of petrol any advance would at best slow down and at worst grind to a halt. A loss of momentum could jeopardise the whole operation as German forces would have time to regroup and counter-attack. Conventional tankers and 'ship to shore' pipelines were in danger of cluttering up the beaches, obstructing the movement of men, armaments and materials and, in all circumstances, were subject to the vagaries of the weather and sea conditions and they were easy targets for the Luftwaffe. The idea of a pipeline under the ocean, (the English Channel), was an innovative solution. Oil storage facilities located near the English Channel were vulnerable to attack by the Luftwaffe. To reduce the risk of losses, a network of pipelines was, during early discussions about PLUTO, already under construction. The network was designed to carry fuel from less vulnerable storage and port facilities around Bristol and Liverpool to the English Channel. This network would later be linked to the planned pipeline at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and Dungeness further to the west. The terminals and pumping stations were heavily disguised as bungalows, gravel pits, garages and even an ice cream shop! The Combined Operations Experimental Establishment (COXE) was involved in many diverse top-secret projects including the waterproofing vehicles, the removal of underwater obstacles on landing beaches and the testing of landing craft under a variety of sea and beach conditions. To this formidable list was added the supply of petrol to France using underwater pipelines. All these challenges were borne out of a culture that encouraged bold and imaginative solutions to intractable problems. Such a  culture was encouraged at the highest level when Winston Churchill ordered Roger Keyes, the then Director of Combined Operations, and his successors, to think offensively when many were at the time rightly concerned with the defence of the country. In the early part of 1942 Geoffrey Lloyd MP, who was in charge of the UK's fuel policy, met with Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations (CCO) and others to consider the fuel supply issue. There was no 'off the shelf' solution that did not invite the Luftwaffe to attack shore installations or slow pipe-laying and support vessels. Lloyd approached Sir William Fraser CBE, Chairman of the Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Corporation.- They picked up on an idea of Mr Hartley, the Chief Engineer of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., to use existing submarine cable technology, minus the core, as the basic building block of a petrol pipeline. Siemens Brothers and Co Ltd, of Woolwich, who were experienced in the design and manufacture of such cables, eagerly took up the challenge. Other design work was undertaken by Henlys, Pirelli, Johnson and Phillips, the National Physical Laboratory and the Post Office. It was a complex task, and there were many failures arising from twists, kinks, bursts and collapse due to external water pressure and other powerful forces. One of the major companies involved in the production of the highly specialised pipeline was British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) of Erith, but even this was not enough to meet the volume of demand, so American firms - General Electric, Phelps-Dodge, Okonite Callenders and General Cable were drafted in. Of the 710 miles of PLUTO pipeline manufactured in total, 140 miles came from the USA. The first pipeline to France was laid on 12th August 1944, over the 130 km (70 nautical miles) from Shanklin Chine on the Isle of Wight across the English Channel to Cherbourg. A further three pipelines soon followed. As the fighting moved closer to Germany, seventeen other lines were laid from Dungeness to Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais. The PLUTO Pipelines were linked to pumping stations on the English coast, housed in various inconspicuous buildings including cottages and garages. Though uninhabited, these were intended to cloak the real purpose of the buildings. Pluto Cottage at Dungeness, a pumping station built to look like a small house, is now a Bed and Breakfast. In England, the PLUTO pipelines were supplied by a 1,609 km (1,000 mi) network of pipelines (constructed at night to prevent detection by aerial reconnaissance) to transport fuel from ports including Liverpool and Bristol. In Europe, the pipelines were extended as the troops moved forward and eventually reached as far as the Rhine. In January 1945, 305 tonnes of fuel was pumped to France per day, which increased tenfold to 3,048 tonnes per day in March, and eventually to 4,000 tons (almost 1,000,000 Imperial gallons) per day. In total, over 781 000 m³ of petrol had been pumped to the Allied forces in Europe by VE day, providing a critical supply of fuel until a more permanent arrangement was made, although the pipeline remained in operation for some time after Along with the Mulberry Harbours that were constructed immediately after D-Day, Operation PLUTO is considered one of history's greatest feats of military engineering. The pipelines are also the forerunners of all flexible pipes used in the development of offshore oil fields. Much of the development and construction of this amazing war - winning engineering effort is down to the direct involvement of BICC in Erith, and their highly specialised engineers, something that local residents can be justly proud of. 

The image above shows an artists impression of an office tower block which is to be built on City Road in the Old Street area of London. The main contractor for the initial phases of the work is going to be construction company Erith Group, who have their HQ office in Queens Road, Erith, and their depot in Manor Road Erith. This news may well mean an increase in local employment as it is anticipated that additional building trades and administrative staff will be needed by the local company. The press release regarding this development reads as follows:- "Erith has secured the early works contract for the £300m redevelopment of 99 City Road at London’s Old Street roundabout. The specialist contractor will carry out structural demolition, piling and basement box construction, followed by delivery of the 35-storey concrete core for the new tower. Works are due to start on site this summer. The landmark scheme is being delivered by Endurance Land, part of the Hong Kong-based Nan Fung Group, and marks a major milestone in the transformation of the prominent City fringe site. Last year, the developer brought in Multiplex under a pre-construction services agreement to lead the main build. The contractor is now working with the design team to drive efficiencies and embed sustainability principles ahead of full construction. Designed by KPF, the scheme will provide around 470,000 sq ft of top-grade net zero office space. The 99 City Road tower is targeting BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Core Platinum ratings, with embodied carbon kept below 650kg/CO2/m2. The new building will improve its connection to the surrounding area through a widened public realm and new square, as part of a major upgrade to the Old Street junction. Key consultants include: Third London Wall (PM), AKT II (structures), Arup (MEP), Arcadis (cost) and FMDC (facades). Completion is scheduled for the first half of 2029".

To return to the main theme this week of fire, it was reported both in the Guardian newspaper and elsewhere that a record number of fires involving e-bikes and e-scooters were reported in the UK last year, prompting renewed warnings over the dangers posed by lithium-ion batteries. The London Fire Brigade has warned that they represent a “growing fire risk”. In a statement this week, the brigade said: “The capital has seen a spate of ebike and e-scooter fires in recent days, indicating the urgent need for action to make the vehicles safer. E-bikes and e-scooters – particularly those that have been modified – are one of London’s fastest growing fire risks.” London remains the UK’s biggest hot spot for such fires, with 175 reported in the capital in 2024 alone. Nearly half of the fires reported in 2024 broke out inside homes, often in bedrooms, kitchens or corridors. Just over a third started outdoors, including in gardens, balconies or sheds. In almost all cases, the battery or generator was identified as the source of the fire, usually caused when it was being charged. In the article, The British Safety Council said “lithium-ion battery failures are relatively rare, but in the event of a malfunction, they can represent a serious fire risk. If a battery degrades, gets hot, or suffers a short circuit, heat and pressure build up inside. Warning signs that a battery is likely to fail include bulging or swelling, sometimes accompanied by other signs such as discharging too fast and/or the battery being hot to the touch.”

The end video this week is a short aerial drone view of All Saint's Church in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.