PREVIOUSLY unseen colour footage of the Henderson’s fire disaster in Liverpool 50 years ago has been uncovered.
The devastating blaze killed 11 people when it ripped through the Church Street department store in June, 1960.
The film, which will be shown on BBC’s Inside Out North West tonight , emerged from the archives of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
And two brave men who were instrumental to the rescue efforts, who haven’t seen each other for half a century, are also re-united in the programme.
Peter Smith, from Little Neston, who was just 18 at the time, was given a Queen’s commendation for bravery after he helped people trapped in the store on to a fourth floor window ledge so they could escape.
He is reunited in the programme with retired fireman George Taylor, from Ainsdale, who scaled a 100ft ladder to rescue survivors from the ledge, surrounded by choking smoke and flames.
Mr Taylor said: “When I arrived at the scene there was quite a lot of smoke and flames coming out of the building, and the people were actually trapped on the ledge on the fourth floor.
“I fortunately had a buckle on my belt with a hook which secures you to the ladder, and when the driver of the turntable ladder saw the situation he had the ladders extending so that we could get the people off the ledge.
“Because I had the belt on, I was able to get up the ladder and get the people off the ledge from the fourth floor.
“But, unfortunately, one chap who was to the left of the ladder, he was pushed off by the heat and pressure from the smoke from the building, and he fell down onto the canopy.”
The film also features Joe Sugar, a retired chauffeur at Henderson’s, who remembers running into the burning building to try and help.
As a result of the fire, new laws were introduced to make conditions safer in shops and offices.
Simon Ryan, a historian at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, said: “In all respects it was the one post-war fire in Liverpool that virtually everybody remembers that was alive that day.
“It really did get into the psyche of the people of Merseyside.”
INSIDE Out North West is on BBC One at 7.30pm tonight.
