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.