By Elliott West
“Every time I close my eyes I can only see the fire, and the children were screaming, and when they stopped screaming I said, oh God they’re dead.”
Armza Ruddock, whose children Yvonne and Paul both died in the fire.
Introduction
It was meant to be an evening of jovial celebration, a joint birthday party in 1981 to celebrate Yvonne Ruddock and Angela Jackson’s 16th and 18th birthdays with 60 guests. An event that is so typical and yet would turn out to etch this South-East London house into the history books for all the wrong reasons. I am a passionate believer in justice but when wrongs need to be righted, I am always keen to shine the spotlight on the case and yet 42 years later this tragic event still has a large number of questions unanswered. A house fire where the heat and flames were so ferocious that it became a burning hell, killing thirteen young people with around 27 injured, some with horrific life-changing injuries.
This was a Great Britain that I am ashamed of for so many reasons. A time when Margaret Thatcher’s government gave the police the power to stop and search innocent black people, bundle them into a police van and extract a confession out of them through intimidation and brute force. A hatred and suspicion for the police amongst the black community that exists to this day, seeing them as the enemy within, foes not friends. This was a time of much unrest with 1981 littered with riots in Bristol, Brixton, Moss Side, Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham, Toxteth and Wolverhampton. Black people felt forgotten, stereotyped and the victims of hate crimes and racial discrimination and you only have to look at the vile behaviour of some in this country at the time to see that their concerns were fully justified. A time when the National Front stoked the ignorant fire of racism.
The Fire
“Thirteen dead, nothing said”.
Alex Pascall OBE, Playwright and Broadcaster.
Many at the time thought this was a racist attack. A crime against the black community where a petrol bomb was thrown into the house to cause death and destruction. This certainly wasn’t the first or last of these tragic incidents. Ten years previously in 1971, a Caribbean house party had been attacked by a firebomb in Sunderland Road, Forrest Hill leaving 22 injured and in 1978 Deptford’s Albany Empire community theatre was burnt down with the National Front claiming responsibility. Some say the fire started outside not inside.
It was Sunday, January 18th 1981 and like all birthday parties, this was supposed to be a time of celebration, a gathering of friends and family, accompanied by good food and music. A party that started in the day but spilt over into the night in a three-storey South-East house. As the night progressed and the party warmed up, there were claims that the party was causing excessive noise with complaints from neighbours but when doesn’t that happen, especially if young people are simply enjoying a party atmosphere? Yet out of this joy came sheer tragedy. A fire that some say was a type of petrol bomb and the police investigation, a fire that started when a sofa caught alight, tore through the three floors of the building with the roar of the flames drowning out the beats of reggae music. The flames licked up the brightly coloured wallpaper and stuck its yellow-forked tongue out the windows. The deafening sound of running feet and screams engulfed the neighbourhood.
The only way out, to escape the excruciating heat and sear of the flames, especially on the upper floors was to jump out the windows. The party was over but a tragedy would ensue. Friends and family lost to a fire that took no prisoners and many who escaped, were lashed with the scars of igneous destruction.
The Victims
Andrew Gooding, age 14
Rosaline Henry, age 16
Patrick Cummings, age 16
Patricia Johnson, age 15
Owen Thompson, age 16
Lloyd Hall, age 20
Humphrey Brown, age 18
Steve Collins, age 17
Gerry Francis, age 17
Peter Campbell, age 18
Glenton Powell, age 16 (died in hospital)
Yvonne Ruddock, age 16 (died in hospital)
Paul Ruddock, age 22 (died in hospital)
Anthony Berbeck age 20, died 2 two years later.
The Continual Inquest
This is a tragedy that to this day has had no justice served with no one charged or convicted of arson and premeditated murder. The police in their inquiry ruled out that a fight had taken place leading to the fire and suspected this was a revenge attack for the noise from the party. A later inquiry gave an open verdict. The families of the victims spent decades trying to have a new inquiry opened and this eventually happened in 2002 when a High Court judge ruled that this could take place. Two years later in 2004, an inquest ruled an open verdict with the judge ruling that the fire was probably started by one of the guests but couldn’t be sure, hence the open verdict.
The Deafening Silence
One week after the fire a meeting took place at the Moonshot Club in New Cross. A meeting that was attended by over a thousand people. A demonstration was arranged as a result with a match to the scene of the fire, blocking the road for several hours. Subsequently the New Cross Massacre Action Committee was set up, chaired by John La Rose with weekly meetings and huge participation. However, the police wouldn’t budge from their findings, still believing the fire was accidental. Darcus Howe described this fire in 2011 as “the blaze we cannot forget”and despite many campaigns, fundraisers and even a documentary, this tragic fire remains unsolved with no definitive conclusion. A stain on the British judicial system and the Metropolitan Police.
Between 1991 and 1993, police received confessions from a jailed killer who gave the name of a suspect who was there when the fire began. Michael Smithyman who had been imprisoned for the killing of his pregnant girlfriend was the centre of an investigation for being there at the start of the fire with an unnamed suspect but it was short-lived as the probe was dropped shortly afterwards. Police at the time did believe that he was the key to solving this case.
“It is suspected that Smithyman was the other person with [name removed for legal reasons] when the fire started and it is our belief he will admit his full complicity in the matter.”
Metropolitan Police
