Sleeper train disaster remembered

Firefighters efforts to save people were hampered by locked doors

People in Somerset are commemorating the day, 30 years ago, when 13 passengers were killed in a fire on a sleeper train in Taunton.

The train was travelling from Penzance to Paddington, in London, when it came to a halt at Fairwater Close in Taunton in the early hours of 6 July 1978.

The fire was caused by laundry which was stacked against an electric heater.

Firefighters arrived within four minutes but were slowed down by internal and external locked doors.

'Eerie scene'

Former fireman, Derek James said: "It was a really eerie scene. Then we had instructions to go in and remove the people from the carriage. It was horrendous in there.

"I never realised that a fire could burn a carriage out like that did."

Ray Stokes, who was a newspaper journalist at the time, said: "One of my abiding memories is the way that local residents reacted to it. They'd heard the train come to a halt close to their homes.

"They used a pair of wire cutters to break down the fence to get to the people who were trying to clamber out of the other carriages and took injured people into their own homes."

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Taunton rail fire