The ambulance station fire of 1979

Fire wrecked the Bourne ambulance station at the corner of Queen's Road and Harrington Street in 1979 and a young mechanic lost his life.

The blaze broke out at the brick and asbestos building at around 7 pm on the night of Tuesday 16th November while Leslie Woolf, a mechanic, was working on an ambulance. The entire station was gutted and three ambulances, each valued at £10,000, were destroyed.

Mr Woolf, aged 33, whose family ran Woolf's Garage in North Road, was rushed to Peterborough Hospital with serious burns but after a short spell in intensive care was transferred to Leicester Royal Infirmary where he died later from his injuries. He was a married man with a small son. He had been rescued from the burning building by two ambulancemen, Harold Joyce and Trevor Beer, who wrapped him in blankets in an attempt to prevent the flames from spreading.

Four fire brigades, from Grantham, Bourne, Corby Glen and Market Deeping, attended and at the height of the blaze flames shot through the roof and high into the night sky, illuminating the entire area. Surrounding streets were sealed off by police as oxygen cylinders burst and exploded in the intense heat.

The alarm had been raised by Mr Tony Rodgers who lived next door to the station and who telephoned the emergency services. "It was frightening", said his wife Sandra. "The first thing I did was to get the children to safety." Across the way in Harrington Street, Mrs Phyllis Fisher who lived at number 69, was calmed by her husband Ray. "The lights in our sitting room began to flicker and from the ambulance station we heard pop, pop, pop and then an almighty bang", she said. "Moments later, it was one massive inferno. I was frightened to death at the thought of what was happening."

The ambulance station was subsequently moved to its present location on the old Bourne Hospital site close to the main A15 but because of its close proximity to the new homes which have been built on the land, this is now regarded as unsatisfactory although there are no immediate plans to replace it.

See also The ambulance service in Bourne

REVISED SEPTEMBER 2011