Norman Buckley: firefighter remembers Granville train disaster

Norman Buckley was a teen recruit when he was called upon to respond to a tragedy of inconceivable proportions. On his retirement the veteran firefighter remembers the Granville rail disaster, the Hilton Hotel bombing and the Sydney Olympics.

It wasn’t until young Norm Buckley and his fellow firefighter recruits were on the way to Granville that they realised this wasn’t just another drill.

It was January 18, 1977 and unbeknownst to the young recruits from the Alexandria Fire and Rescue Training College, they were about to receive their baptism of fire at Australia’s worst ever train crash – the Granville Rail Disaster.

Australia’s worst rail tragedy.

A heartbreaking 84 people lost their lives.

A train coming from the Blue Mountains, loaded with passengers, was approaching the Granville Railway Station when it derailed on a curve where the speed limit was 80km/h and smashed into the pillars of the Bold Street Bridge causing it to collapse.

“I was only 18. We were all just young blokes,” Mr Buckley said.

“We were in the yard doing exercises when one of the bosses came over said, ‘senior class, get your gear and report to the tender’.

“The tender was the minibus and so we all thought it was a little practice to get us ready because we were just about to go to our first fire station after 12 weeks of recruit training.

“So we all got in and then the boss told the driver to put on the siren and lights.

“’We’re going to a train crash’, he said, ‘and I’m not quite sure how bad it is’.”

A young Norm Buckley (right).

Superintendent Norman Buckley retired last week.

Mr Buckley of Darlinghurst, who is now 63 and retired as a Superintendent last week, would soon learn 84 people, including an unborn baby, were dead and it was his job to help sift through the hellish wreckage.

“We were there until 11 at night looking for victims and putting in fire protection measures.

“You have no idea how many ambulances, police cars and doctors were there. It was just crazy.”

As well as the dead, there were a further 213 people injured at Granville.

Although the firefighter recruits were decidedly green, Mr Buckley and his mates played an instrumental role in the rescue.

The Granville Rail Disaster will be forever etched in Sydney’s memory.

Rescuers battled to save victims buried under the collapsed concrete.

Gas was leaking, the temperature was soaring and rescuers and victims alike were gasping for air underneath the collapsed concrete.

“There’s this unit we use for smoke extraction and we put it in under the slab where all the doctors were working,” Mr Buckley explained.

“It was a stinking hot January day in Granville and all doctors and medics were struggling under the slab because that’s where most of the victims were.

“Once we put that air extraction in it created a cool draught.”

Just one year later on February 13, 1978 Mr Buckley was involved in another incident which shook Australia – the nation’s first terrorist attack.

A bomb exploded in a rubbish bin outside the Hilton Hotel which at the time was hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting.

The Sydney Hilton bombing.

Two garbage collectors and a police officer were killed, 11 others injured and the incident would ultimately lead to the formation of the Australian Federal Police.

“I remember going there afterwards and seeing the bin where the bomb had gone off,” Mr Buckley said.

“I wasn’t on shift at the time but I had to go in to the scene the next day as part of a major presence we had in George St.

“We were on what we called ‘fire duties’ so making sure there was no reignition after the blast.

“We also put some extension ladders up the Queen Victoria Building. I remember we were looking for fragments of any of the victims who were killed or other evidence of what had happened.”

Of the countless fires he helped extinguish, the Rembrandt Hotel blaze of August 25, 1981 stands out.

Mr Buckley was pump driver on that fateful night as the crew from Darlinghurst Station desperately raced to Kings Cross.

“I vividly remember my right leg shaking when we realised the magnitude of this fire,” Mr Buckley said.

Officers attempt to extinguish the blaze in the Rembrandt Apartments in Kings Cross.

The fire was so intense some of the occupants of the hotel made the gut wrenching decision to take their chances and jump rather than be burned alive.

“People were jumping from upper levels as the central stair was fully involved with fire.

“There were five levels with no fire protection whatsoever. We lost nine souls that morning.”

But despite all the devastation he has witnessed, Mr Buckley said he has incredible memories of his time in Fire and Rescue NSW of the mateship and his participation in iconic events such as the 2000 Olympics.

Mr Buckley was City of Sydney Station Commander at the time and he vividly recalls the excitement and energy the event brought to Sydney.

He said Brisbane will have the time of its life when they host the event in 2032.

“It was just so memorable and so much fun,” he said.

Mr Buckley retired last week after 44 years of distinguished service.