Pause for reflection

[julesjones]

I have just watched the BBC world news report on my local PBS station, this being the first tv news coverage all day that I could access and thought likely to bear some vague resemblance to what actually happened in London this morning. One thing that struck me was the mention of something that had been amongst my own first reactions -- memories not of the many other terrorist bombs the UK has had to deal with over the last thirty-five years, but of the King's Cross fire in 1987.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2519000/2519675.stm

Too many bombs over the years, in too many British towns and cities, including the one I was born in and still ultimately call home. And yet, although I've witnessed the aftermath of terrorist attacks, I've had the great good fortune to never have even been within hearing distance of a terrorist attack as it was happening. But I know people who have. As already noted on my other LJ, the_warwick has posted a moving account of how he was helped by passers-by on the day he was caught up in a bomb blast in London. That day was in February 1991. He's still affected by the experience, but he's up to posting about how he feels about the people who helped him that day. It's a way of thanking them, and of thanking the people who have done the same for others today.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/the_warwick/61132.html

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yes, for those in the middle of the disaster it doesn't make much immediate difference whether it's caused by a bomb or a dropped cigarette... except that a fireball still strikes me as the most terrifying thing that could happen.

I still find that every time something like this happens on the Tube, my mind flashes back to Moorgate (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/28/newsid_2515000/2515033.stm). I suppose the first one you remember is always the most powerful.

[julesjones]

I don't remember anything about Moorgate, as I was living in a different country and almost certainly never even heard about it, given my age at the time. So there's no emotional impact there for me. But the horror of the King's Cross fire is another matter. I didn't actually hear about it until the next day, and felt irrationally guilty that I had not known, as if I had shown disrepect to the dead. I imagine that for a lot of people not quite old enough to remember Moorgate, King's Cross is the one that has the power, because it's the one we're old enough to really remember and have understood at the time it happened.