“London Underground did not guard against the unpredictability of fire. Unhappily they were lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that no previous escalator fire had caused a death.”
I was working on a new YouTube ep on the weekend, and was reminded by these apt comments from Des Fennell in the 1988 King’s Cross Underground Fire investigation.
These same insights are just as applicable now about what we manage, measure, reward, and ignore.
It’s noted:
a. “London Underground … prided themselves on their reputation [but were] lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that no previous escalator fire had caused a death”
b. It was inadvertently believed that “passengers and staff” would act as fire detectors, giving enough time for safe evacuation
c. Bad news was filtered as it travelled up the organisational hierarchy, scary sounding ‘fire’ became ‘smouldering’
PS. Check out my YouTube: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=iUaDPJynPemQRZhY
Shout a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson
SafetyInsights.org 