In June 1965 the people of Eccles witnessed one of the most epic disasters the town had ever seen.
A Mexican tanker carrying 3,000 tonnes of powdered sulphur ignited on the Manchester Ship Canal.
It was due to unload its cargo at Irwell Park Wharf in Eccles.
Not many people are today aware that ships would sail inland to drop freight in Eccles; Irwell Park was used until the late 1970s when the Salford docks – now MediaCityUK – was in desperate decline.
It was a similar idea to Peel’s 154,000sq m inland Port Salford, which is still under construction and due to open in 2016.
On the morning of 5 June, local residents raised the alarm when thick blue smoke could be seen pouring from one of the tanker’s open hatches into the sky.
Fire crews from Eccles and Salford piled into the ship in breathing appartaus – nothing like the sophisticated oxygen technology firefighters have today, but enough to prevent asphyxiation.
The ship’s Chief Officer, Jack Le Brecht, told an Eccles Journal reporter: “We arrived at the wharf from Mexico on Monday and on Wednesday we began unloading and proceeded without any trouble until this morning.
“When the first docker went go down to use a bulldozer to move the cargo, he reported that he could see a fire 20 feet below deck.”
Salford docker William Morrison, who lived in Broughton said: “I was operating a mechanical shovel on a ledge about 12 feet below the deck and about 30 foot from the bottom of the hold, with two other dockers with me.
“We were clearing loose sulphur from the ledge and pushing it down into the hold where it could be hauled out by the grab [crane] and loaded onto lorries waiting on the wharfside.
“As we sent one load of sulphur down into the hold there was a terrific rush of air, followed by a flame flashing past us, 50 foot into the air.
“We dropped everything and fled for our lives to deck level.”
He added rather nonchalantly that it wasn’t the first time that he had been working on a sulphur boat when it had caught fire and he always knew a way to beat a quick retreat!
After two hours of battling the blaze the crews managed to get it under control, reaching the seat of the fire behind some wooden ceiling spars in the bottom of the hold.
Strangely enough a mill van was called to distribute 30 pints of milk among the firemen. A senior fire officer explained that this was normal procedure at sulphur fires, saying that the alkaline in the milk counteracted the effects of powdered sulphur that men would inhale when battling this type of fire.
I find it hard to believe that milk was given out to these brave men to help them breathe normally, can you imagine the furore with the Health and Safety today?
More to the point, can you imagine the consequences if 3,000 tons of sulphur were to explode in Eccles?
At that time with the wharf’s proximity to Lankro’s Chemical Engineering works, it would surely have been a disaster of catastrophic proportions.
If you have a local history story you’d like us to cover, please email your ideas to tonyflynn@salfordonline.com.
