At 14:22 on the 22nd June 1960 a 999 call was received in the Fire Control at Hatton Garden reporting a fire at Henderson’s Department Store, Church Street, Liverpool. Despite there being a rapid response time by the Fire Service with the first appliances arriving on scene at 14:25 a significant and tragic fire rapidly developed which resulted in the loss of 11 lives.

From an ambulance service perspective a major incident was declared by 14:41 and 14 ambulances were requested at scene. There are many accounts on line that describe this tragic event in detail and we will signpost you to a website that dramatically documents the 50th anniversary of the tragedy.

What this website hopes to achieve is to research and document some of the details of the ambulance service response to the tragedy.
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Photographs provided courtesy of Simon Ryan and Mersey FRS archives

The historic photograph at the top of the page shows the tragic aftermath of the Henderson’s Fire.

From an Ambulance Perspective two of the faces in civilian clothes are the Chief Ambulance Office Albert Guinney and Deputy Chief Officer Bert Bradley. This is because Ambulance Officers did not start wearing uniforms until 1970. We can also identify the nearest Ambulanceman as Bill Lockyer.