Summerland survivors call for inquest verdicts to be reviewed

Jackie Hallam was 13 when she was caught up in the Summerland fire

A woman who lost her mother and best friend in the Summerland fire has called for the inquest verdicts of those who died to be revisited.

The deaths of 50 people in the blaze at the leisure complex on 2 August 1973 were ruled to be misadventure.

Huddersfield's Jackie Hallam is one of a group of survivors who believe that implies those who died were at fault.

She said those caught up in the tragedy "took no risk" and went to the site "to use it for its intended purpose".

The Apologise for Summerland campaign group had previously called for the Isle of Man authorities to apologise for the failings that were identified in the inquiry into the blaze in 1974.

That apology came during July's Tynwald sitting when Chief Minister Alfred Cannan offered "an apology for the suffering caused by the wrongs of the past".

Jackie Hallam (right) regularly went on trips with her mother Lorna Bryson Norton (centre) and best friend Jane Tallon (left)

Ms Hallam said while she welcomed the apology, the most important element of the campaign was getting the "inaccurate" inquest verdicts changed.

"Death by misadventure is a death where someone may have taken some activity with some voluntary risk involved," she said.

"We took no risk, we went into a building to use it for its intended purpose.

"We had a right to expect that building to be safe [and] it was not safe.

"It was not death by misadventure."

Warning: The following contains descriptions that some may find distressing

The fire at the complex started after three boys set fire to a kiosk outside.

It spread rapidly due to the flammable nature of the Galbestos cladding on part of the building.

Designed to have a summer feel all year round, the front of the complex and part of the roof were covered in a transparent acrylic glass called Oroglas, which melted in the heat and dripped down on those below.

About 3,000 people were inside Summerland when the building caught fire

Ms Hallam said she was on holiday with her mother Lorna Bryson Norton and best friend Jane Tallon when the fire broke out.

Recalling what happened, she said there was a sudden "darkness and then smoke and no air" before the "whole side of the building just went up in flames from the bottom to the top".

"Of course, there was all the scrambling and the panic and the screaming and the pushing," she said.

"It was just getting hotter and hotter and I was hopping from one foot to another to try and just relieve the pain.

"I felt my hair singe and my clothes were on fire and the plastic fireballs were just raining down.

"There was no way to get away from them."

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She said she jumped over a railing because it was "preferable to being where the fire was", and fortunately something on the ground floor below her broke her fall.

She said she saw a speck of light through the smoke and "just ran towards it" before somebody "reached down and pulled me out".

After receiving hospital treatment for burns, she was told the devastating news that her mother and friend had died.

She said it was important to get "justice for my mum and my friend and for the [other] 48 people that died".

Heather Lea lost both her parents and sister in the disaster

Fellow campaigner Heather Lea, who lost three relatives in the fire, has also backed the call for a review.

She said she and her husband Reg welcomed the chief minister's apology, but "saying sorry isn't enough" as there had been "too many wrongs".

The couple were newlyweds when they waved off Ms Lea's parents and younger sister as they boarded the ferry in Liverpool for a holiday on the Isle of Man.

Richard and Elizabeth Cheetham and their 13-year-old daughter June were among the 3,000 people inside the complex when it caught fire.

Richard and Elizabeth Cheetham visited the Isle of Man regularly with their children

After seeing a newsflash about the fire, Mrs Lea called the guesthouse where they had been staying but was told they had not returned.

By the next morning, she said she knew instinctively that "they weren't coming home".

She said she and Reg also wanted the Manx government to build a lasting memorial on the site.

That is also something local resident Tina Brennan, who witnessed the fire, wants to see.

In 2013, a three-column memorial to those who died was erected by Douglas Borough Council in the Kaye Memorial Gardens.

Ms Brennan, who has campaigned for a monument for years, said although Douglas Council's nearby memorial was "nice", something permanent on the site itself was vital to acknowledge the mistakes that were made.

Tina Brennan wants to see a permanent memorial on the site

Demolition of the previous building, which was a replacement for the original complex, began in 2006 and the site has not been redeveloped since.

Ms Brennan said the "only viable option" was a "national memorial and remembrance gardens on that site, where it should have been from the first anniversary".

The government has been approached for comment.