The Clarkston explosion was a disaster that occurred on 21 October 1971 in a row of shops on the main street of Clarkston,

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas o ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. The death toll has been stated as 21 or 22. The explosion followed a build-up of gas in an underground space beneath the Clarkston Toll shops, caused by a

gas main Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...

leak later ruled to have been accidental. Customers and shop staff had on 20 October complained of a strong smell of gas in the centre and

Scottish Gas Board The Scottish Gas Board was a state-owned utility providing gas for light and heat to industries and homes in Scotland. The Board was established on 1 May 1949, and dissolved in 1973 when it became a region of the British Gas Corporation. Probl ...

engineers had attended to investigate, but had identified no source for the smell. The engineers were still in attendance at around 2:50pm on the following day when the gas ignited and exploded, killing 22 people and injuring around 100. The victims included many shop staff and people on shopping trips, and the passengers of a bus that had been passing the scene. The explosion destroyed ten shops and a car park above them. An inquiry was held, and a jury on 11 February 1972 returned a verdict that no fault for the explosion lay with any organisation or individual. No cause was identified for the ignition of the leaked gas, and the leak itself was deemed the result of an accidental gas main fracture caused by "stress and corrosion". The main had been insufficiently supported to withstand vibrations from traffic, and a large crack was found in it during the investigation. The victims of the disaster are commemorated in a plaque erected in 2001/2 near the site of the explosion. There is a further tribute to those who lost their lives situated in the entranceway to the Clarkston Halls.

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation ...

produced a programme on the Clarkston disaster which aired on 20 November 2017.

References

{{reflist Explosions in 1971 Explosions in Scotland 1971 disasters in the United Kingdom 1971 in Scotland History of East Renfrewshire Gas explosions October 1971 events in the United Kingdom Clarkston, East Renfrewshire