What happened on Harbour Street in Nairn, Scotland in 1998?

On 4 January 1998 a fire broke out in a maisonette home on Harbour Street in Nairn, Scotland. Tragically the fire would claim the lives of four children.

The call was received by the fire brigade at 09:30 by the occupant, informing of family and children trapped inside the flat above a shop.

How did the Harbour Street house fire start?

It has not been concluded how the fire started or why the spread of flame was so fast-moving through the property.

To escape, the father of the children had got onto the upper verandah and closed the door behind him. He tried to get over to the balcony in order to bring the children down, but the flames were too intense.

When the fire brigade arrived the children were trapped - large plumes of smoke were visibly escaping the flat. The brigade set up position outside from the ground floor, projecting water at the balcony. They battled for some time to extinguish the flames, but tragically the children could not be saved.

What can the industry learn from the Harbour Street house fire?

The speed of the flame from the stairway to the room where the father escaped reached flashover in under a minute. It remains unclear why the flames spread so quickly and how the design of the property produced a chimney effect with modern building materials.