The Inspiration for Dickie's First Story (Ashes & Ink)

Dickie's Beginnings

Shortly after finishing The Empire Club Murders, I had it in my head that I would like to write a spin-off series featuring Dickie Waite, the journalist I introduced in Matthew's first novel and who becomes Matthew's firm friend.

I knew I wanted it to be more of an 'origin' series rather than one contemporaneous with my DI Stannard series (in the same vein as my PC Matthew Stannard series) and that I only ever intended these books to be novellas, not full-length novels. I didn't want Dickie to be getting involved in and/or solving murders. I wanted Dickie's series to be about the power of the press and his evolution into an investigative journalist. The challenge was to come up with stories to fit this brief.

The Inspiration

While reading a history book (I can't remember which - I read such a lot), I came across a reference to an industrial fire that caused quite a stir at the time back in 1902. This snippet of information seemed to me to have potential for a Dickie story, so I dug a little further.

In the morning of the 9th June 1902, a fire broke out at the offices of the General Electric Company in Queen Street, City of London. There were around 200 people working in the building, enough people to warrant the company having their own private fire brigade.

Despite this, when the fire broke out on the second floor, more than a dozen young women found themselves trapped there. They had only been taken on the previous week to fulfil the demand for orders arising in anticipation of the Coronation of Edward VII. When the fire brigade arrived, they found they couldn't rescue the women because their ladders were too short to reach the second floor. In desperation, a few women jumped out of the building onto tarpaulins below. The women left on the second floor all died.

Naturally, there was an inquest and it was a big affair, lasting around 12 weeks. The coroner decreed the women died of suffocation (i.e. smoke inhalation) and that although there had been deficiencies in the fire brigade etc., no one company or individual was criminally responsible for their deaths.

This verdict didn't sit well with the press, and the fire and inquest were subject to heavy scrutiny in the newspapers. Their revelations caused public outrage and several important new safety measures were introduced as a result. It's unfortunate that it often takes a disaster and the loss of human life for changes to be made.

Further Reading

If you're interested in reading about the Queen Victoria Street fire, there is an informative essay here: Lessons from a Forgotten Disaster.

If you would like to read Ashes & Ink, you can find it here.