A light, maybe a cigarette or match, was probably dropped into a waste paper basket in the main entrance foyer, where it smouldered, and caught. No one knows for sure.
But, in the early hours of Monday morning, smoke and fire spread up the single stairway and lift shaft - the only ways out of the building, save for a Davy escape. So began a nightmare: one of the deadliest fires in Oban, and hotel fires in Scotland.
"attachment_975736" "aligncenter" "300"] The Oban Times anniversary coverage of 'The Fire', 10 years ago.
Ten lives were lost in the tragedy that day, July 24 1973. But many were also saved, from a burning hotel that could house 49 people in its 26 bedrooms, thanks to members of the public and local voluntary and emergency services.
Among those who rallied were 12 firemen of the Oban retained unit of the Western Area Fire Brigade: men who their firemaster said "had a hell of a hammering", and yet just a day after returned to their jobs as plumbers, electricians, mechanics, barmen, builders and bin lorry drivers, ready for the next call.
"As soon as they had been summoned, they reached the scene of the fire with commendable speed and acted with great efficiency and courage," ruled the Fatal Accident Inquiry.
"In particular, we wish publicly to thank Station Officer [Joe] Simpson of the fire service, and his men, who tackled this exceptionally severe fire with great determination and ability."
In this week's paper, the last three surviving firemen of this heroic crew describe their experiences that night, and afterwards.
"attachment_986767" "aligncenter" "209"] Firefighters had to pump water from the sea into the inferno.
On the fire's 50th anniversary, Monday July 24, a service will be held at Oban Community Fire Station on Soroba Road at 11am, to remember all those who perished and rallied to the rescue - not least the firemen who ran from their beds straight into danger to save as many people as possible.
The public are invited to join the ceremony, and share their memories. There will be an opportunity to tour the station, and meet the local crew. Light refreshments will be served. For catering purposes, those wishing to attend are requested to contact watch commander Dougie MacLean on 07765 815982.
"Shouts for Help"
A foghorn reverberated around Oban Bay, in the dead of night at 3.15am, July 24 1973. Mr D. Robertson spotted a glow in the foyer of the Esplanade Hotel, from his yacht moored 50 metres offshore. Other boats joined in. A crewmember rowed ashore to raise the alarm.
Five minutes later Mr and Mrs McCulloch, whose home faces the back of the hotel, were awoken by breaking glass and shouts for help. They dialled 999. The operator said a fire had already been notified.
"Late Call"
The Fatal Accident Inquiry expressed "entire confidence" and "deep appreciation" of all the emergency services. But it also found "wide discrepancies of the timing of the discovery of the fire at the Esplanade Hotel and the times of 999 calls to alert the emergency services".
The duty ambulance driver, Mr J. J. Barbour, received a call from the operator to the hotel fire at 3.40am. He dispatched in two minutes, arriving at 3.45am, and phoned for assistance. Two police constables were already helping people from the verandah at the front. Inside the front door was a mass of flames and smoke.
At approximately 3.45am, lorry driver Norman MacLeod heard shouts and screams, and saw smoke rising from the back of the hotel. He ran to a phone on the North Pier and dialled 999, and was put through to the police.
The police log noted the 999 call from Mr MacLeod at 3.55am. The duty officer, thinking it might be a hoax, called two constables on a meal break "to get down there as fast as you can to confirm there is a fire". They set off on foot, as they were not authorised police drivers.
Very shortly after, one radioed back on his walkie-talkie a very serious fire at the Esplanade, needing all emergency services. The constable sounded the fire bells in the firemen's homes at 3.56am, and phoned the exchange to alert an ambulance.
In the inquiry, the detective chief inspector was sure the times of 3.55am for Mr MacLeod's 999 call, and 3.56am for the ringing of the fire bells, was accurate. Mr Barbour's times had been incorrect, he said.
In any case, 36 minutes after the first reported 999 call, Oban's fire crew were awoken. "Had the brigade been called earlier, there would have been more time in which to make rescues," station officer Joe Simpson told the inquiry.
"attachment_985855" "aligncenter" "300"] The front of Oban's Esplanade Hotel ablaze.
"You just threw a pullover and trousers on, and you ran."
"When these bells ring, you do not know what is going to happen. You just get on with it," remembered Alisdair Carswell, a retired Oban fireman and gas salesman. Aged 30 at the time, he lived in Dunollie with his wife Catherine and two children, away that night in Tiree.
Nearby, the alarm sounded in the home of lead fireman Donald Malloch, a retired mechanic now aged 84, who lived in Corran Brae with his wife Anne and three children.
"You just threw a pullover and trousers on and you ran," he recalled.
"The bell started and rang for half an hour," said Anne. "It did not stop the way it would have done. They were obviously in panic. I was afraid it would wake everyone on the block. I climbed up and stuck a sock in it to deaden the sound."
"I had a car and I took [sub officer] George Downie down from the house to the fire station," Donald added. "When we passed the road end, we saw the place was well ablaze. We saw the fire and smoke. You train for fire, but you can never train for something as hard as that night."
"I have never come across anything like that in my life," agreed a third fireman Robert Hart, now 76, then a fettler living in Dunollie with his wife Catherine and two children.
"When I jumped in the car, as soon as I came round the front by the cathedral, I could see the smoke. Flames were shooting out of the roof. I thought: 'That is a goner.' I would not have been surprised if some of them were dead before we got there."
All made haste to Oban's old fire station on Shore Street.
"attachment_985825" "aligncenter" "300"] Former Oban fireman Alisdair Carswell, 80, remembers the Esplanade Hotel fire vividly, 50 years later.
"We had to get water from the sea."
"I got ready to get the first appliance out," recalled Donald. "George Downie went on the phone and made pumps. Oban had two appliances. He would make four. I took the wheeled escape appliance, with big wheels on the back, with a ladder." The Oban appliances had five ladders between them.
At 4.01am, within five minutes of the bell sounding, the first fire engine arrived at the Esplanade Hotel, driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The second arrived two minutes later, at 4.03am.
"I was driving the second fire engine," remembered Alisdair, whose job at the front of the hotel was to get water as quickly as possible. "It was obvious the ladders were required," he said. "There were people at the windows and the verandah. I was concentrating on getting water and hydrants." Eight jets were in use at the fire.
The wind was coming from Kerrera, he said. "There was really no smoke at the front. The flames were at the back because of the wind direction. The smoke was horrendous. The firemen were shouting for water, and it was up to me to try to get it for them.
"There was not enough in the hydrant. The water pressure was dropping. We had to get water from the sea. These pumps are very heavy - a four man job. Members of the public helped me get the pump to the beach. Where they came from at that time in the morning, it was amazing. Everybody mucked in."
"It melted, and he fell."
Station officer Joe Simpson, a plumber, had decided to deploy almost all resources to rescue people trapped at the rear of the hotel, where the flames and smoke were worst - a decision later praised by the inquiry. Robert and Donald headed to the left, and Donald to the right.
"attachment_985831" "aligncenter" "300"] Donald Malloch, 84, lives round the corner from the site of Esplanade Hotel fire, which he will never forget.
"We saw smoke and flames coming out," recalled Donald. "We got ladders off and started running hoses out. If there was no one there at the window, we just pumped water into it."
There were no fire escapes. The FAI report concluded ten people died in the fire - nine in the building from asphyxia, and the tenth from injuries sustained when he jumped from a window.
"He came out onto the roof," Donald recalled. "He went to put his foot on the pipe and it was plastic, and it melted, and he fell. He died from his injuries."
"A man and a woman appeared at a window on the top floor and the escape was pitched to that window," the inquiry recorded, "but the man disappeared before the ladder reached the window."
"attachment_985834" "aligncenter" "300"] The back of the Esplanade Hotel, showing the broken ladder from which Mr Malloch was rescued by a fellow fireman.
"There was a crack."
Donald saw the lady calling for help from the top window. "Jackie McCallum went up," recalled Donald. "The ladder was fully extended. Even at that Jackie was below the window. The woman had to drop down onto the ladder with Jackie.
"When she got on the ladder she passed out. Her legs went through the rungs. All he could do was hold her, and I went up the ladder and went underneath her, and lifted her by the legs.
"Then there was a crack and the ladder shot away. Jackie and the woman fell to the side. I got jammed in the ladder. There was glass underneath. Every time I pushed myself up I went down through the glass. George Downie, he came up the ladder. He put a shoulder on it and lifted me out. He made jokes out of it.
"attachment_986827" "aligncenter" "231"] The ladder collapsed, with two fireman and an unconscious lady falling to the ground - luckily all escaped with no serious injuries.
"We saved the woman. She was alright. Jackie had to have his ankle checked. I was just lucky."
“He did not feel it at the time," said his wife Anne. "It was when he got back and had a bath his legs were ripped as well. His pyjamas had slashes down the legs. His clothes were covered in blood. He had been working all night, carrying on without knowing what happened to him. He went in the middle of the night and did not come back until 7 o’clock the next day."
"attachment_985837" "aligncenter" "300"] "We were just doing our job": retired Oban fireman Robert Hart, 76, who saved a man's life that night.
"I can still see their faces at the window."
"The adrenalin was so high," explained Robert. "You are thinking about saving lives and putting the fire out."
On the left, Robert too saw people in the windows. "There was a gentleman hanging out the window, a floor below the roof," he said. "There were two ladies in the room above. They were shouting 'help', both leaning out the window.
"With the shortage of ladders, I climbed up the roanpipe to get on the roof to convince them to jump. I just had to get to these people. I managed to coax the man to jump. He landed and I caught him so he did not roll off. He damaged his leg.
"Then I tried to get the ladies to jump. I could not convince them to jump. When I looked round, they were gone. They just gave up and went inside.
"All the ladders were in use. There were only two machines. For the size, a fire like that you would expect six to eight machines. Our neighbours were Lochgilphead and Inveraray. By the time they got there, it was more or less under control."
The appliance from Inveraray, 40 miles away, arrived about 5.02am, and another from Lochgilphead, 38 miles away, arrived at around 5.15am.
"attachment_986806" "aligncenter" "203"] The back of the Esplanade Hotel after the fire.
"We got a ladder up to search all the rooms to see if anybody was living. There was none," Robert remembered. The two ladies "were both lying lying dead in the bed, cuddled in together. It was not one of the best sights to see. I’ve never forgotten it. I can still see their faces at the window."
The 'stop' order was sent at 5.50am. "Once we got the bodies out, we stood down for a while," recalled Robert. "Then we got in to make sure it would not rekindle. Then back to our normal job the next day, waiting for the next call. It is the next day that it hits. You realise what you went through. The ferocity of the thing. How many died in it.
"I have never experienced or seen anything like it. It has been the worst in Oban. Losing two ladies, that stuck in my mind. I was glad I at least got him down. It feels like yesterday."
The Rotary Club took survivors away to their houses that night, recalled Donald. A few days later, a couple from Australia staying at the hotel that night came to the garage to thank him."He never did any counselling or anything," said Anne, "like the folk came back from war and went back to their jobs and crack on as best they could."
"attachment_985846" "aligncenter" "300"] Donald Malloch passes the site of the Esplanade Hotel, now demolished, on his walk to the shops. "It takes 50 years to forget," he said.
"We keep remembering them."
Today, 50 years on, Donald lives just along the Esplanade. "You remember wee things," he says. "You go to bed. You are about ready to go over, and you get the smell and you see something like a burnt limb. After a while it goes away.
"I come up and down here all the time. I go up to Farm Foods and go past the back of the building. Everything has changed, but it is still the same.
"You remember the men you were with in the fire brigade. They were your pals. You miss them. The ones that are not here, we keep remembering them. You never, ever forget."
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