Business continuity lessons and a great place to work

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At 07:39 on Tuesday 8th October 1957, a fire call was received to the Central Ambulance Station, Upper Stanhope Street, Liverpool 8.

The fire had rapidly involved the whole of the rear of the premises in which there was stored twenty ambulances, and other vehicles, together with a petrol pump and tank containing 750 gallons of petrol.The intense heat caused the light steel roof trusses to expand and in the early stages the rear portion of the roof collapsed.

On discovery of the outbreak, the three ambulance drivers on the premises had been able to remove six ambulances which were garaged near the front entrance, but the vehicles housed in the rear of the premises where the outbreak had originated were trapped and all were rapidly involved by fire and severely damaged.

A subsequent investigation revealed that whilst a sitting case ambulance carrier was being filled with petrol by one of the ambulance drivers, an overflow of petrol occurred. It appears from the information from this driver that when he attempted to move the vehicle from the filling point, upon pressing the self-starter, a fire occurred beneath the vehicle, but how the petrol vapour became ignited is difficult to establish.
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Stacks Image 1911
Toxteth Station was rebuilt and continued to operate out of its base in Upper Stanhope Street next to the Wellington Butts Public House until 1982 when it was finally closed when the Station and its great staff moved to new premises on Grafton Street Toxteth. The site on Grafton Street was NHS property and was the actual site of the old Southern Hospital.
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The great team at Toxteth after finishing the last shift at Upper Stanhope Street 1982.


From left to right:-

Cliff Calland, Nora Mannion, Paul Crosswood, Marie Boyes, Mike Jackson, Bobby Graham, Terry Gorman, Dave Taylor, Charlie Palmer, Vinnie Seddon, Brian Fullerton, John Main, Ross Walsh..

Factoid

Adolf Hitler is rumoured to have visited Liverpool in 1912. The story rests on the authority of his sister-in-law, Bridget. In a manuscript written in the 1930s, she claims that Hitler arrived in the city in November 1912 in order to stay with his half-brother, Alois, who lived in Upper Stanhope Street.