GROSVENOR HOTEL - 1978

In 1978, a fire believed to have started in a chip pan roared out of control at the Grosvenor Hotel in Glasgow and overwhelmed poorly equipped military crews covering for striking firemen. 

The sailors and marines argued they could have stopped the flames sooner had they been equipped with turntable ladders rather than antiquated "Green Goddess" reserve engines.

Two sailors had a narrow escape when the kitchen ceiling collapsed, according to The Herald.

QUINTINSHILL - 1915

The Quintinshill rail disaster occurred May 22, 1915, between Glasgow and Carlisle. A troop train collided with a local and an express plowed into the wreckage. As many as 226 people died; 246 were hurt.

GREAT WESTERN ROAD - 1972

Photo: Glasgow City Council

On Nov. 18, 1972, a fire at a disused furniture shop killed a Glasgow firefighter and another person.

The shop was located in Great Western Road.

According to The Glasgow Story website:

"Forty-one dwellings, six shops, two public houses and a post office were destroyed by fire or subsequent demolition and fifty families were made homeless.

"A stretch of the Glasgow Underground was damaged and had to be closed.

"In the wake of the incident, which came close on the heels of the Kilbirnie Street disaster of 25 August, there were demands for the introduction of greater fire safety precautions."

CLUTHA VAULTS - 2013

On Nov. 29, 2013, a police helicopter crashed into Clutha Vaults, a pub on the north bank of the River Clyde in central Glasgow. Ten people died. (All three aboard the helicopter, six on the ground, with another succumbing later to injuries sustained in the pub.)

THEATRE ROYAL - 1969

On Nov. 3, 1969, a blaze at Glasgow's Theatre Royal claimed the life of fireman Archie McLay, according to the Evening Times.

The fire brigade turned to high expansion foam to flood the basement and extinguish the flames, which burned for 10 hours.

At the time, the building housed studios of Scottish television.

According to STV:

The fireman fell through a trapdoor in the building and was unable to activate his BA distress warning system.

Another firefighter who attended the blaze, John Jamieson, went on to invent an automatic Distress Signal Unit (DSU) for firefighters which would go off if they stopped moving for 30 seconds.

HALL STREET

Glasgow's Hall Street Fire Station on V-E Day in 1945