London: Memorial services mark anniversary of King's Cross fire

Source: CNJ/ICN/TfL

The 30th anniversary of the King's Cross fire was marked today with a ceremony at the station, a special Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Church nearby and prayers at St Pancras Church at noon. Thirty one people lost their lives and 60 were injured in the tragic fire at King's Cross station on 18 November 1987.

Fr David Lucuy celebrated a special Mass this morrning in the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Copenhagen Street. Sr Teresa from La Sainte Union read the roll of names, and Sr Marie lit a candle for each person. The parish has remembered the fire dead every year since the disaster.

Fr David told ICN: "It was a very emotional event. Many family members and friends have now died or moved away, but there was still a crowd of people. After the Mass they went on to the ecumenical ceremony at the station."

Retired social worker Kevin McCarthy, now 81, was one of a group of volunteers who helped families of victims on the night and has helped to organise the service ever since. He told Camden New Journal: "After the fire, the place of refuge was that church. Father Jim Kennedy was there at the time and he opened the church non-stop for the first week. He promised there would be always be a Mass on the day and the diocese has kept to that promise. We light the candles and do the roll call. People have told me they find it very supportive."

Among the victims was former La Sainte Union pupil Treena Chappell, who is buried beside her mother in St Pancras and Islington cemetery in Finchley. The 16-year-old is believed to have taken the tube to King's Cross for a karate class on the evening of the blaze. Mr McCarthy laid wreaths for Treena and for Michael Holden, a hero who died in the fire after dragging several passengers to safety. He is also buried close to Treena.

One of Treena's school friends, retired police office Christopher John, told the Camden New Journal: "I remember her as a lovely, bubbly girl, very fun and smiley. She was a good-mannered Catholic girl and would hang about up at Field Court, up Fitzjohn's Avenue. She was a regular there with about five or six of us who'd hang out about at teatime after school."

He added: "One day, literally she just disappeared. For a long time no one knew why she was gone - all we knew was that she had stopped coming round. It took a long time for people to work out that she had died in the fire. I heard she had been on her way to a karate class in the King's Cross area. I think she was identified by dental records in the end."

There was also a service at St Pancras Church at noon.

At the station, victims' families and survivors, together with members of emergency services who were there on the night, stood for a minute's silence with Mayor Sadiq Khan, Mike Brown and Transport for London commissioner before a wreath laying ceremony and prayer service lead by Rev Ian Black, London Fire Brigade Chaplain.

Smoking was immediately banned on all parts of the Tube after the disaster, wooden escalators were replaced and Underground staff were trained in what to do in the event of a fire.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said the King's Cross fire stands alongside the disaster at Grenfell Tower as a reminder that "safety and regulation must remain our watchwords regardless of what the bottom line says on a set of accounts".

The following people died in the fire at King's Cross underground station on the night of 18th November 1987:

Betty Afua Agyapong
Terrence Alonzo Best
Mark David Bryant
Andy Burdett
Elizabeth N Byers
Treena Chappell
Dean T Cottle
Susheila N Cottle
Felix Dearden
Neville H Eve
Jane A Fairey
Natalie A Falco
Alexander Williamson Fallon
Jonathan R George
Kuttalam Govindarajan
Graham D Hall
Michael Holden
Ralph Humerstone
Bernadett Kearney
MA Bobby Keegan
Mohammed Shoiab Khan
Marco Liberati
Philip G Marks
Laurence V Moran
Lawrence S Newcombe SRN
Stephen A Parsons
Christopher Wallace Roome
Rai Singh
John F Joseph St Prix
Ivan Tarassenko
Station Officer Colin J Townsley GM