Ministry of Pensions fire, 1964

Engines came from all over the region. I remember reading the crests on the sides of the engines, "City of Birmingham", "City of Wolverhampton", "City of Leicester", "City of Stoke-on-Trent", "City of Derby", etc. None of yer "West Midlands Metropolitan Council" rubbish in those days! Except for the second huge fire in the very same building in 1966 do you mean?

Thanks Dutchman, I not sure if the AFB were involved in dealing with the 1966 fire, I know I wasn't, hence my disappointment.

As far as I remember a Green Goddess was used to damp down the embers the following day but not involved in the main operation the night before.

Only just seen this - thanks for a very interesting photo!

One of my earliest memories - I remember Dad taking me to see the big building on fire in Gosford St, must have been the day after? I was only 4, surprised at that, as it feels as though I were older more like 6 or 7. EDIT: Or perhaps it was the later 1966 fire I was taken to see?

I lived in East Street at the time aged 9, me and a few mates went to get a better look, we went down Godiva Street and cut through a yard full of garages to I think it was called Kencast Buildings, I think they were prefab garages and sheds, we sat on the roof of one of the display buildings. I remember you could not see the road for hose pipes, I`ve never seen so many to this day, the fire brigade were pumping water out of the river, it had water in it in those days, the road was closed but the pub next to Kencast was still open (can`t remember the name of the pub), didn`t get back home till after midnight, my dad gave me a right roasting but knew exactly where I`d been, not a lot of point giving excuses. Went back the next day and watched the firemen throwing thousands of grey blankets out and damping down, that fire kept us entertained for days.

Yes it was, Kencast precast concrete garages and sheds. There was even a precast concrete dog kennel for sale! There were two pubs, the New Inn just below Kencast and the The Fox & Vivian a few doors up and directly opposite the blaze.

Thanks Dutchman, it was the New Inn, can`t understand how it was allowed to keep open though (it might have been fire command centre for police and fire brigade ha ha ha) convenient or what?

Not only was I there but I was a (then) young reporter on the Coventry Evening Telegraph and covered the story! I was sitting in Coventry Magistrates Court at the time when I heard the clanging of umpteen fire bells, so I left the court, found out what was happening, saw the blaze and rang the newsdesk to alert them that a very major story was happening. I can still remember that a major appeal was put out for private motorists and drivers to help with the evacuation of the hospital because the ambulances and emergency vehicles couldn't cope. I can still see it now, with scores of cars lined up all the way down the road and patients being ushered into them, clutching their belongings and some with drips protruding from their arms, held up by nurses. I never left the scene for many, many hours after that. I and a couple of other reporters stayed up all night, walking round and round the area, talking to people, nurses, policemen, firemen. etc, etc interviewing them and getting the full picture. We eventually returned to the Evening Telegraph office in Corporation Street at breakfast-time the following day and the three of us sat down and wrote the story. The following words that appear on the Mirror Pix reference were MINE! "As thick smoke swirled through the wards and flames licked dangerously close to hospital buildings, a fantastic rescue operation involving hundreds of civilian volunteers, as well as firemen, police, hospital staff and ambulancemen, swung rapidly into action.The blaze, the most spectacular since the war, was watched by thousands of homeward-bound workers from streets and vantage points all around the city." These words must have been lifted by the Mirror from the Evening Telegraph splash front page because I distinctly remember writing them! Why? Because one of my colleagues said: "Christ, how can you be so bloody bright at this time of the morning?" It is one of my most abiding memories of Coventry as a young provincial newspaper reporter, not long married. I married a girl from the Evening Telegraph advertising department who worked on the front counter taking adverts and we are still married 50 years later! Roy Stockdill Retired journalist. now a professional genealogist Watford, Hertfordshire

Hello, Roystockdill & welcome to our Coventry forum Thank you for your informative post.

Here is film of the fire from Mace Archive

Hi Deano Are you sure that this is the ministry of pensions in Coventry as I was there during the fire and only the top two floors were on fire and the clip shows the whole building being destroyed.?

I remember watching the fire on my way home from school. As I recall, the building was a T-shape with a large wing at the back. This seemed to be the part completely destroyed and I recall watching a huge wall on that wing collapse while we were there. So could it be that only the top floors were affected on the part adjacent to the road?

well says its a Government building near a hospital and it is the same year,was there another fire elsewhere?

I haven't seen the film Deano has attached as I can't access it on this PC for some reason. What I can say in response is that the 2 top floors of the old Morris Building facing Gulson Road were ablaze but 'sealed off' from the offices below (see my introductory post No.1 ) for the reasons given in said post the Staff who worked below were unaware of what was stored above their heads ! This may have been why the fire didn't reach ground level. The rear of the building ( Gulson Hospital facing) was in part burnt out, some of which collapsed and some of which was demolished later