The Cheapside Street Disaster - March 28th - 1960
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A roll call was taken at this point and the final tally of missing men was revealed to be fourteen Glasgow Fire Service and five Glasgow Salvage Corps.
At that time, the scene was still too dangerous to continue any attempt at rescue of survivors or any recovery of bodies.
The priority of the Fire Service was to both contain the fire and prevent any spread into the adjacent buildings, one of which was a Distillers Co. Ltd. Whisky bond in Cheapside Street directly opposite the whisky bond already on fire and a Harland and Wolff engineering works in Warroch Street.
Such was the intensity and fast development of the fire that, in cinemas around Glasgow, messages were shown asking for all off duty firemen to report to their stations to assist ongoing operations. Those same messages were also transmitted on the television and radio stations serving Glasgow and the surrounding areas.
It took until 6.18am the following day to bring this devastating fire under control.
The harrowing task of informing distraught wives and families of the loss of loved ones began in the early hours of the morning.