Eyewitness account: Isobel Moss

I remember thinking it was such a dreadful day. The wind was driving the rain, which was pounding down. I remember thinking I had never seen Clarkston so deserted before. Then, after I had my teeth seen to, I got into the car which was, fortunately for me, a big Humber Hawk. They don’t make them any more. It was built like a tank. I was going in the direction of Busby Road. The bus was at the bus stop there, but it was much farther out because the gas board van was there. I remember thinking: ‘I wonder if I can get past that. No. I’ll just wait until the bus moves off.’ Fortunately for me I did that, for within 20-30 seconds of waiting for the bus to move on, there was the explosion.

“My first thought was that the tenement buildings had collapsed, because huge lumps of masonry came down on top of the car and also hit the passenger side, where the baby seat was. Fortunately, he was not with me that day, or he would have been killed. The roof of the car came right down, just to touch my hair. There was a huge block of concrete on the roof of the car. A huge block hit the side. I remember afterwards there was absolute silence. The houses above the Bank of Scotland, the curtains were blowing straight out horizontal, because of the wind that day and the glass had been blown out. I remember seeing the flames shooting out of the pavement, just beyond the zebra crossing. The flames and the curtains, those were the two things that stick in my mind.

The windscreen was out. I just had this panicked feeling that I had to get out to let the ambulances in. I did this U-turn, and I went up a one-way street with the door hanging open and almost collided with the fire engine coming up. Just as I was approaching my own house, I remembered that there was a doctor who lived a few doors up. I stopped at their gate and I banged on their door. I thought everyone would have heard the bang, but, in fact, they had not heard it. I said to them: ‘You must go down to Clarkston. It is dreadful’. She said: ‘It can’t be that bad’. I said: ‘It’s dreadful’. Five and ten minutes later her phone rang and it was a call for all the doctors in the area to go. I then went home. My mother was there looking after my own son, Alan. Again she knew nothing about it. I got a phonecall through to my husband to say: ‘I’m all right, but the car is wrecked.’ He didn’t know what I was talking about. Then my legs wouldn’t hold me up any longer. My mum put me to bed. I didn’t have a mark on me. Sometimes I think it would have been better if I’d broken an arm or leg. When I went back down to Clarkston, I remember seeing the cream cakes in the City Bakery windows. They were not allowed to be moved, until after the inquest.