The importance of fire safety courtesy of The Towering Inferno

By HILARY GAVIN

I WAS twelve years-old in 1974 when I first watched Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Fay Dunaway starring in the Seventies blockbuster movie The Towering Inferno at a time when high-rise buildings began dominating our urban skylines in big cities across the Western world.

Of course, my interest at that age was in the dashing Steve McQueen who played the city’s heroic fire chief in the movie, and whose character was called in to save lives after the tower block’s greedy finanicer cut corners with building contracts.

I’ve not taken a look at the IMDb synopsis of The Towering Inferno and its cast credits online to write this blog post so I am, quite honestly, writing from my distant memory of the film but you can watch the official trailer above.

If you do, I wonder if you, like me, are reminded of the Warner Brothers’ A-list stable of Hollywood stars who were at one time fully controlled by studio bosses because it is primarily a billing of the movie’s glittering actors and actresses.

It made me wonder why the fire safety message of The Towering Inferno, conveyed by the late, and great, actor Paul Newman portraying the principled and indignant architech who unearths his fraudster client’s cost-cutting practices is edited out?

Of course, I’m neither a qualified civil engineer nor health and safety expert, (quite frankly I’m not intelligent enough), but I am aware as an ordinary member of the public, and post-911 and the Grenfell Tower tragedies in New York and London, that ignoring fire regulations KILLS PEOPLE and must be avoided at all costs.

Now, I’m not going to delve into the backstories of 911 and the Grenfell Tower fire, which have been fully covered on telly and in our national newspapers, but I make no apologies for raising fire safety issues that worry me locally.

I’m sure local people living in West Sussex have recently read the stories of the thatched roof of a well-loved pub called The Gribble in Oving village catching fire twice this year, but if you haven’t I’m publishing the link to the story of the initial fire in The Argus in March below along with the BBC report of two yachts burning and sinking at the marina in Birdham in Chichester Harbour on the Manhood Peninsula in the first week of September 2025.

West Sussex pub bosses issue statement after major fire | The Argus

Two boats sink after explosions and fire at marina in Birdham – BBC News

Of course, my Facebook friends are aware of my own worries about the broken gas meter cover in the open driveway outside my terraced house in Southover Way, Hunston, on the Manhood Peninsula because I have no idea how the key barrel could have gone missing because I didn’t remove it.

I’ve taped my gas meter cover up until I can get someone I trust to come out to fix it because OVO tell me it’s my responsibility as a homeowner to repair it. Now, as you know, I’m an ignoramous in these matters so I’d like WSCC Fire & Rescue service to offer me sound advice on keeping my gas meter safe.

I’m mentioning my own woes because I’ve been worried about the faulty gas meter box at our village hall in Hunston for a while now (see photograph). Why hasn’t it been fixed?

*The taped-up gas meter box outside Hunston Village Hall which has been faulty for some while and should be fixed. Photo taken in the evening of Sunday, September 28th 2025*

My gas meter box cover which I discovered had been removed from my gas meter box on September 4th 2025

I should tell you that I have emailed our WSCC Fire & Safety service today to ask them to offer me expert public information advice on what I should do to best deal with my broken gas meter box cover in Southover Way.

Thankfully, a friend of mine in the construction industry tells me my gas meter should be safe because only registered Gas Safe engineers have either the knowledge or tools to access them.

Saying this, I am still worried after my experience as a tenant renting a property in Rose Green, near Bognor Regis, after I spotted my British Gas Safety Cerificate was showing the wrong gas hob appliance at my home.

Of course, I immediately consulted Gas Safe to look up the British Gas engineer who signed the certificate and I was shocked to discover his name wasn’t on their register.

I was only renting this property through the respected local lettings agents Henry Adams in London Road, Bognor Regis, on a six-month tenancy but I was dismayed when I asked them to issue me with a valid Gas Saftey Certificate showing the correct appliance but my pleas were repeatedly ignored.

At the time they told me they had given me a valid British Gas certificate so it was valid, but I held my ground saying it wasn’t because it showed the wrong appliance.

To cut a long story short, Henry Adams in Bognor Regis eventually called in a British Gas engineer to check my gas appliances to ensure my home was safe and issue a valid certificate.

In all honesty, I believe we have to stop cutting corners in our money-driven consumerist globalised world by making sure our homes, be they rented or owned, and our utilities’ infrastructure, are safe for homeowners across our country.

If this story resonates with you, my WordPress friends, I’d suggest you take a quick look at your Gas Safety certificates to keep yourselves, your family and loved-ones safe.

By HILARY GAVIN

Freelance Journalist & Writer

T/A Business ‘n’ Commas (sole trader)

6 Southover Way

Hunston

CHICHESTER

West Sussex

PO20 1NY

Hilary Gavin

Tel: 07940 444664

Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog

Hilary Gavin

Like this:

Discover more from Hilary Gavin

Leave a ReplyCancel reply