Glasgow, Scotland was once the “workshop of the world”, a hub of industry through shipping and rail. It was also a tinderbox which resulted in many devastating fires, resulting in the city installing the country’s first street fire alarm system at the turn of the 20th Century. Twelve memorial plaques were set into the pavements at sites where firefighters died on duty by Strathclyde Fire And Rescue. On a derelict patch of ground near where I live lies one of these plaques, commemorating Branchman WIlliam Rae. As the Glasgow Herald, the city’s newspaper of record reported:

“On the morning of 24th November 1904, at twenty five minutes past seven o’clock the Glasgow Brigade were summoned by the ringing of a street alarm to a fire which had broken out in the oil gas producing works of the North British Railway Company, situated at the company’s mineral terminus in Hunter Street. Unfortunately, one of the tanks or cylinders connected with the process exploded.

The tank, which was made of iron, and of boiler shape, was about 20ft in length, and the explosion caused a rent in the side of about 2ft. Rae, who was standing with the branch immediately in front, received the full rush of flame, which singed all the hair off his face and head and burned him from the shoulders upwards. He was at once conveyed in an ambulance wagon to the Royal Infirmary. Luckily his eyesight is uninjured. The damage caused by the fire is principally to the gas storage portion of the works. Another tank exploded about ten minutes after that which caused Rae’s injuries, but the firemen had kept clear of danger.”

(The Glasgow Herald, Friday, November 25, 1904. Page 9.)

A Glasgow Fireman

“William Rae, a member of the Glasgow Fire Brigade, died yesterday evening in the Royal Infirmary from the effects of burning injuries received on Thursday last at a fire in the oil gas producing work situated at the North British Railway Company’s terminus in Hunter Street. Rae, who was a merit class fireman, and was a joiner to trade, entered the brigade in November 1891, and rose through the various grades, being in charge of the joiner’s shop at the chief station during the past seven years. He leaves a widow and four of a family (the eldest being 10 years of age) to mourn his loss.”

(The Glasgow Herald, Monday, November 28, 1904. Page 11.)