Fire Disasters

In an era reliant on gas lighting, fire was a constant danger. Dundee, with its warehouses full of textiles, was particularly threatened, and there were several spectacular conflagrations during McGonagall’s time there.

• Burning of the Exeter Theatre
• Calamity in London
• The Burning of the People’s Variety Theatre, Aberdeen
• The Clepington Catastrophe
• The Disastrous Fire at Scarborough
• The Miraculous Escape of Robert Allan, the Fireman