The leading UK steel and aluminium advanced glazing company has recently supplies fire-rated systems to the iconic King’s Cross redevelopment in London. The systems have been delivered by Wrightstyle to the station itself and a number of surrounding projects.

When completing the work on the fire-rated systems, the company has remembered the events of 30 years ago and the connections to more recent history. Thirty years ago, the King’s Cross Fire claimed the lives of 31 people. Following this tragedy, as with others including no doubt this year’s Grenfell Tower Disaster is the culture of codifying by disaster, or making advances in safety regulations following an appalling tragedy. This practice has been long held and disputed, putting people at unnecessary risk until the changes to fire safety regulation are made. The King’s Cross Fire differed from the Grenfell tragedy as it illustrated how quickly a small fire could become a conflagration and aided the understanding of this unknown dynamic.

King’s Cross Station was completed in 1852 and was located on the site of a former smallpox hospital, which was thought to be haunted by the ghost of Queen Boudicca. The station sees around 50 million station users each year and, because of this, the security of the station is vital, for a number of reasons such as the 2005 bombing, and the 1973 Provisional IRA bomb which detonated in King’s Cross’ booking hall. However, the first major fire at the station was in November 1987, and it is thought that this event has had a greater impact on public safety. There was a lack of visible flames and firemen felt that it posed little threat, however the situation escalated and spread into the ticket hall. This disaster required groundbreaking computer modelling and fire simulation in order to promote a new theory of fir developments within inclined shafts. This modelling helped to advance the science of fire dynamics and led to improvements made in public places around the world.