Evacuations ordered as tunnel fire raged

A MASSIVE blaze at the Summit rail tunnel forced about 200 people to be evacuated. A petrol tanker caught fire after being derailed about half-a-mile into the tunnel on the Walsden side at 6am on Thursday 20 December 1984.

Driver Stanley Marshall, the guard and an area guard inspector ran through the tunnel to raise the alarm. Mr Marshall then went back into the tunnel with firemen to uncouple three of the tankers and drive them to safety.

At the Walsden end firemen tackled six small fires. But when they started on the seventh the heat blew the tankers safety vents and a huge fireball went up through one of the ventilation shafts.

The firefighters had to escape and as they left police told families to leave their homes. As the blaze raged on fire chiefs decided it was too dangerous to tackle directly.

More than five hours after the accident special fire-fighting units broke through a tunnel shaft and pumped high-expansion foam into the tunnel, preventing a possible blow-back along the tunnel.

Railway engineers had to wait until the tunnel cooled down some days later before they could fully inspect the damage.

Royal opening for hospice

A HOME to care for terminally-ill people was officially opened by Princess Anne on 2 November 1989.

Springhill Hospice started as a dream of Margaret Geoghegan. In her job as a Birch Hill Hospital ward clerk, Mrs Geoghegan had the heartbreaking task of finding people places in hospices around the North West. She felt Rochdale needed a hospice of its own and with some friends she set up a charitable trust to start the hospice in January 1983.

Within five years £600,000 was raised, one of the biggest charity efforts ever seen in the town. Building work went on as the trustees neared their mammoth target of £900,000

The first patients were brought to the hospice on October 1989 and the work of caring could begin.

Princess Anne was most impressed with the hospice as she was given a guided tour by Mrs Geoghegan, now chairman of the hospice directors.

A hundred people waited outside to catch a glimpse of the Princess Royal, and the patients seened pleased to see her as she chatted with them.

Key events - 1980 to 1989:

1980 - Rochdale policeman Andy O'Sullivan helped to supervise elections in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia; About 600 people gathered in Rochdale town centre as part of TUC's 'day of action' against government policies; Demolition work started on the former Trinity United Reformed Church, which stood in Rochdale town centre for more than 100 years.
1981 - Labour councillors Bill Collinson and Frank Warburton were banned from group meetings after defying the party whip over the sale of council houses; Major protest at sex shop opening within 50 yards of Broadfield Upper School; Rochdale textile union leaders and employers accuse government of 'murdering' industry after trade deal with Indonesia.
1982 - Fire destroys Oulder Hill School's Recreation Centre; A councillor hit the headlines by saying the Town Hall should be converted into a supermarket; Rochdale cyclist Mandy Jones becomes the first British woman to with the World Amateur Road Race in 25 years.
1983 - Rochdale-born actor Jack Howarth, alias Coronation Street's Albert Tatlock, awarded MBE in New Year's Honours list; Muslims staged a three-hour sit-in at Wardleworth Area Council Offices to try and get a housing officer, employed to advise them, removed from his post.
1984 - Hurricane force winds tear through Rochdale causing thousands of pounds worth of damage; Boxer Kevin Taylor competes for Great Britain in the Olympic Games.
1985 - Government blocks Rochdale Council grant to Boots the Chemists to set up computer distribution centre, saying the company can afford to do the work without public assistance; Comedian Bobby Ball becomes Rochdale Hornets director.
1986 - About 4,000 homes in Rochdale and Whitworth had gas supplies cut off when water got into gas mains and caused a massive explosion; Dexine Rubber company fitter Ricky Bingham hit the headlines after being asked to do an impression of a chicken laying an egg at a job interview.
1987 - Rochdale Council decided the Union Jack flag could be offensive to Asians and ordered taxi firms to take the emblem off their cars; About 400 people turn out to help 'cut the sod' for work to begin on Rochdale hospice; Labour leader Neil Kinnock lays the foundation stone at Wardle Swimming Pool.
1988 - Rochdale Council education adviser Thomas Heaton and RAF helicopter squadron leader Wing Commander Malcolm Pledger given OBEs in New Year's Honours list; Rower Adam Clift just missed out on Olympic medal; Rochdale teenager Emma Wolfe got her first taste of modelling when her picture was printed in Sunday Mirror magazine.
1989 - Red-faced painters have to return to the 'Rochdale - Home of the Co-op' sign on Edinburgh Way to put in that all-important hyphen after the Observer complained they had turned the town into the home of the hen cage; Council services disrupted as members of the union NALGO go on strike; Buckley Hall Young Offenders' Institution closed down; Springhill Hospice opened.