Childhood memories can have a powerful effect on your life. My father was a fireman who fought at the Cheapside Street fire. The haunting memory of that night is still vivid in my mind. 
THE NIGHT MY FATHER CRIED.
My dad was a fireman. I remember vividly him taking me to Ingram Street Fire Station as a child and laughing when he slid down the pole to show me how quickly he could reach a fire.
On 18TH March 1960, I was 12 years of age. Dad came home from work that night, settled , looking forwards to read in peace and quiet, but it was not to be. He had earlier left the Ingram Street Station at the end of a day shift. He had laughed and joked with his friends and colleagues who were starting their night duty.
At 7.49 on that night 1 million gallons of whisky and 31 thousand gallons of rum in the warehouses at Cheapside Street Glasgow exploded into a horrific blaze.
We had no phone in those days, news was slow and long
A banging on the door that night, something was badly wrong.
Dad’s brother Joe came charging in “Is our Hugh on nights" he said
My mother said “he’s in his room,” Joe’s face, was filled with dread.
Uncle Jack who lived in the city had phoned up uncle Joe.
He heard a rumbling explosion and went to see the woe
“I will never forget that hellish sight and the thunder”, Jack he said
The front of a warehouse came crashing down, they say there’s many dead
Jack said he had heard the fearful screams, then a eerie silence fell
The blaze rose high and lit the sky just like the fires of hell
Far away, in Drumchapel our hearts were filled with fear
We saw the blazing sky alight, the inferno felt so near
We sat and prayed for all the men our dad within our heart
A brave and courageous man in the fighting he took part
All able hands were called that night , all the men from up our stair
We lived in a fireman’s close it was all firemen who lived there.
19 men perished on that night, 14 firemen and 5 salvage corps men. My dad came home the next day. I’ll never forget his haunted eyes …his face, soot and dirt, streaked with tears. He had helped to pull his dead friends from the smouldering pyre.
Requiem Mass was held in St Andrew’s and the Funeral Service in Glasgow Cathedral, High Street The streets were thronged with people who had come to pay their respects.
Dad was a pall bearer at St Andrew’s The dead were buried in the Glasgow Necropolis where there is a monument with their names dedicated to 'Britain’s worst peacetime disaster'.
The Fire Service, Police, Ambulance and Lifeboat people devote their lives to saving lives. Many have given their own lives in serving. We should never forget when we hear the sirens brave people are putting their lives on the line for us all.