Flashback to February 1993

One naked flame, one spark... that's all it would have taken, and that's how close Shrewsbury came to disaster.

With thousands of litres of petrol cascading along the streets and into the drains the conditions were right to turn part of the town into a huge bomb, all ready to detonate in one almighty fireball.

Shrewsbury rode its luck that night. There were heroes in the shape of firefighters who were sometimes working ankle deep in petrol, other emergency services, and volunteers, and it was thanks to them that Monday, February 22, 1993, is not remembered for all the wrong reasons.

But it is still remembered as one of the most extraordinary nights for the emergency services in Shropshire, with there being two major incidents simultaneously just a few miles apart. A huge fire gripped Cox’s Chemicals at Overley even as they dealt with that major petrol spillage when a tanker ruptured in Copthorne causing hundreds of residents to be evacuated.

Fumes hung heavy in the air in the county town and police said afterwards that if there had been a spark there could have been a massive blast demolishing several streets.

The drama that evening had begun at 6.40pm when a tanker delivering supplies to the Copthorne Service Station on Copthorne Road somehow overturned on the gradient and the tank containing around 7,000 litres of fuel ruptured. The fuel gushed into surface water drains, sewers, and into the River Severn.

Police sealed off the Copthorne and Frankwell areas and later the Coleham district where the pumping station was also closed. They frantically banged on doors to alert local residents and clear them from the area.

Firefighters sprayed the tanker with foam to try to lessen the risk of an explosion.

Residents who were evacuated went to stay with friends or family or went to an evacuation centre at the Music Hall, where they had hot drinks, with council staff mobilised to help them.

The firefighter in charge that night was Mike Bickford, who was a Divisional Officer based at Shrewsbury.

“To this day I don’t think anybody who was involved in the job can comprehend what would have happened," he recalled.

"We were so, so lucky. It had spread from one end of the town to the other. Cars were swilling about in it. They were moving through petrol as though it was water. And there was not a single ignition.

“There could have been an explosion absolutely anywhere, followed by a fireball. This was the worry.”

Instead, it proved to be the big Shrewsbury disaster which didn't happen. Happily, nobody was hurt.

While this crisis was being dealt with, a major emergency developed in the eastern part of the county.

The alarm was raised at about 9.10pm by an elderly couple, Bill and Gwen Oakley, whose cottage bordered the Cox's Chemicals plant near Wellington.

Local residents had long warned of the potential dangers from the site on their doorstep and were suddenly proved right when a fire broke out and engulfed the plant.

Mr Oakley said: "The explosion rocked our cottage. I looked outside and the factory was all ablaze. It was one big ball of flames. We were terrified – it was horrific."

As if that was not bad enough, in the early hours of the blaze nobody was certain that toxic material was not going up into the atmosphere.

Both the old and new A5 roads between Telford and Shrewsbury were closed as toxic fumes spread.

More than 70 firefighters, some wearing gas and chemical suits, battled to contain the blaze which ripped through the former military weapons testing centre. Some 20,000 litres of chemicals, including pesticides and fertilisers, and four tons of mercury were involved in the fire.

People nearby were told to keep their windows shut, and in the aftermath local family doctors were alerted to be on standby to deal with any illnesses caused by the chemical cloud.

But there were no serious consequences apart from a massive clear-up bill – and there was a lot of wrangling over who should pay.

It was the end for Cox's Chemicals, but before it disappeared from the scene it was fined £20,000. A stipendiary magistrate said that it was sadly lacking in safety measures.

It turned out later that despite the night of double disaster, nobody notified members of Shropshire’s emergency planning team. The first they knew about it was when they saw it on television.