Research Cluster / Group Affiliation

• Climate and Atmosphere

---

Research Interests

• Climatology, especially rainfall variability over Britain
• The Isle of Man Summerland holiday centre fire disaster

---

Biography

Ian Phillips gained his BSc Geography degree from the University of Birmingham in 1995, before continuing at the University to complete a MSc in Meteorology and Climatology and a PhD in Geography.  Ian has been on the teaching staff of the University since September 1999.

---

Current / Recent Research

Climatology

My current and previous research in this area can broadly be placed in the field of hydroclimatology.  The rainfall climatology of the South West Peninsula of England has been the focus of my research for a number of years.  This research has three dimensions:

• Understanding variations in precipitation receipt over time: the role of weather types, wind direction, vorticity, water vapour flux, the North Atlantic Oscillation and sea-surface temperatures (SST)
• The predictability of monthly and seasonal Devon and Cornwall rainfall totals
• Spatial patterns: analyses of daily rainfall over Devon and Cornwall; rainfall regionalisations of South West England stratified by season and wind direction

Whilst the rainfall climatology of South West England remains an important focus of ongoing research, my research interests have diversified over the years into other geographic regions and themes whilst remaining firmly under the hydroclimatology umbrella.  One such theme focuses on understanding Icelandic precipitation and river-flow variability. Recent research projects under this theme consider the relationship between Icelandic precipitation and North Atlantic SST; and Icelandic temperature and winter Arctic sea-ice variability.  Among the MSc dissertations that I have recently supervised include winter rainfall variability over Cumbria; the climatology of cut-off lows in the Mediterranean; and the dependence of deaths from respiratory disease in the West Midlands on weather conditions.

In the Birmingham area, I have undertaken research on four extreme flood events that affected SW areas of the City between 1998-2000.  This research considers the similarities and differences between the events in terms of their effects, geographical extent, rainfall intensities and synoptic-scale weather situation.

Forthcoming papers include Summer Daily Precipitation Variability over the East Anglian Region of Great Britain (International Journal of Climatology) and Spatial and Temporal Variability of Flood Seasonality in Wales (Hydrological Processes).

The Isle of Man Summerland Holiday Centre Fire Disaster

Over the last four years, I have been researching the Summerland fire disaster, which killed 50 at Douglas, Isle of Man, on the evening of Thursday, August 2nd, 1973. The culmination of my research is a book (approximate length of 100, 000 words), which has been placed on this website. The book – which is about 95% complete - is unique in terms of the range and depth of information that it provides in a single volume about the Summerland fire.  The book  has been peer-reviewed by John Webb, who was a member of the Fire Research Station team that investigated the disaster.

The facts of the Summerland disaster are chilling: the deaths of 50 people in a new building that had been hailed as marking the dawn of a new era of British leisure architecture when it opened in 1971. The Summerland concept was new and made the Isle of Man complex unique in a British context. In the words of a promotional booklet, Summerland was “a new concept in leisure” whose innovative design would “set the architectural world alight”. Summerland was not merely a horrific fire disaster in a small island community; but a tragedy that had reverberations throughout the British Isles and beyond in the fields of architecture, building design, leisure and public safety. The Summerland fire is the worst day in Manx history and still today remains the worst loss of life from fire in an enclosed building in the British Isles since the Second World War.

Despite the large-scale loss of life in the Isle of Man fire, the Summerland disaster is one of the most forgotten and trivialised news stories in the post-war history of the British Isles. For instance, few books that claim to list major news stories involving Britons mention the Summerland disaster, yet the authors of these books can all find space to mention the deaths of 31 Britons in the King’s Cross Underground Station fire in London. What an outrage! Now ask yourself the following question: if the Summerland disaster had happened in Bournemouth and killed 50 middle-class southerners, would the authors of these books have failed to mention that? I very much doubt it. The treatment of the Summerland dead by history writers and the media really does speak volumes about geographical bias in the media.

Chapter 1 introduces the Summerland disaster; considers the number of deaths; the age, sex and region of origin of the Summerland dead and injured; and the family groups affected by the disaster.  The chapter concludes by placing Summerland in the context of British fire disasters. In chapters 2 and 3, the economic rationale and design logic behind Summerland are analysed. These two chapters provide the necessary economic and architectural background that is essential for understanding the Summerland project. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to the evening of the fire and its aftermath respectively. The material in chapter 5 is arranged chronologically to enable the reader to see how the story developed over the ten days after the fire. This chapter includes extensive comment on the disaster from the architects, the Isle of Man authorities, Trust Houses Forte and the Chief Fire Officer (the interested parties); and building and fire experts in the UK. In chapter 6, the main findings of the Summerland Fire Commission (SFC) report are presented in a non-technical manner and their implications for the design and management of public buildings are discussed. The tortuous road to the rebuilding of Summerland is considered in chapter 7. In this chapter, a comparative analysis of the original Summerland and the rebuilt structure will be conducted to enable the reader to see how the lessons of the disaster have been learnt. Chapter 8 is devoted to telling the stories of some of the people who survived the disaster and the effects that it has had on their lives. In chapter 9, the book concludes by looking at the future redevelopment of the site that will see Summerland – the complex and the infamous name – disappear into history. Thirty-three years after the fire, the Summerland story will finally close in 2006. Summerland and the adjoining Aquadrome were demolished in January and February 2006.

The research has entailed extensive archival research in libraries in the Isle of Man, Birmingham and London. Chapter 7 is based on site visits to Summerland in 2003 and 2004 to analyse how the lessons of the disaster were learnt when Summerland was rebuilt after the fire. My aim has been to collect as much information as possible on the fire; identify any inconsistencies and contradictions; and synthesise the information into the book.

A Summerland fire disaster factual summary document is also available from the author on request. This summarises the main facts of the disaster and the reasons for the appalling loss of life.

A big thank you to all of my correspondents

I would like to thank the 70 people who have contacted me about the Summerland fire since June 2005. These people have included survivors of the fire, people who had visited Summerland before the blaze, Isle of Man residents, health and safety officers and university students who had been set an essay on the fire. Your encouragement and interest in my research are much appreciated. However, I would still like to hear from anyone who was directly or indirectly involved with the Summerland disaster in any way. In particular, I would like to hear from:

1. The three boys that started the fire or any person who knows the three boys.  The three boys would now all be in their late forties or early fifties.  I am not interested in revisiting your involvement in the fire because it is well established that your actions were not malicious.  I am interested in telling the stories of your lives AFTER the fire in my book, and I will not publish any information (names, addresses) that could lead to your identification.  What became of your lives?  Have you ever been bullied or threatened by anyone over the Summerland fire?  Did your involvement in the Summerland disaster scar you psychologically?
2. Survivors of the disaster and individuals who lost family members at Summerland: I am willing to add your stories to chapter 8 of my book.
3. Any person who can shed light on why sections of the media (e.g. The Isle of Man Newspaper Group, BBC) and other organisations (e.g. The Isle of Man Fire Brigade) misreported the number of deaths from the Summerland fire as being either 51, 52 or 53 for many years.

I would also welcome any comments or suggestions about my book. For instance:

• Are there any factual errors? In particular, I found that the spelling of people’s names and their ages often varied slightly between different newspapers.
• Are there any obvious omissions?
• Is the weighting that I have given to the various factors that caused the fire correct (especially the role of Oroglas)?
• When attempting to explain something, is there another explanation that I have missed?

The Book

From 21st century leisure to 20th century holiday catastrophe: the Isle of Man Summerland holiday centre fire disaster

• Contents
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Continental Attractions / Domestic Solutions
• Chapter 3: This is to be the dawn of an new era of British Leisure Architecture
• Chapter 4: 8 pm and the horror started
• Chapter 5: The island's aftermath of bitterness
• Chapter 6: : There are to be no villains, just human error
• Chapter 7: Learning the lessons of history
• Chapter 8: Summerland survivors tell their stories
• Chapter 9: The Summerland site into the 21st century
• References

These files were last updated mid-afternoon on Tuesday 17 February 2009.  The new versions (especially chapters 5 and 6) include personal testimony from one of the original fire investigators, John Webb.

Although I am writing the book for my own benefit, I would still be interested to hear from interested publishers.  No book currently exists that solely covers the Summerland disaster.  I believe my book to be unique in the range and depth of information presented about a disaster, which directly or indirectly affected the lives of thousands of Britons.

---

Key Publications since 2001

Journal papers

Morris, B.J. and Phillips, I.D.  (2009)  The effect of weather conditions on the Oxford-Cambridge University Boat Race.  Meteorological Applications, 16, 157-168

MacDonald, N., Phillips, I.D. and Thorpe, J.  (2008)  Reconstruction of long-term precipitation records for Edinburgh: an examination of the mechanisms responsible for temporal variability in precipitation.  Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 92: 141-154

Phillips, I.D. and Denning, H. (2007) Winter daily precipitation variability over the South West Peninsula of England. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 87:103-122.

Phillips, I.D. and Thorpe, J. (2006) Icelandic precipitation – North Atlantic sea surface temperature associations.  International Journal of Climatology, 26: 1201-1221.

Mitchell, R. and Phillips, I.D.  (2006) Warm season extreme precipitation events at Sunderland, 1940-2000.  Weather, 60: 227-231.

McDonald, N. and Phillips, I.D. (2006) Reconstructed annual precipitation series for Scotland (1861-1991): Spatial and temporal variations, and links to the atmospheric circulation. Scottish Geographical Journal, 122: 1-18.

McGregor, G.R. and Phillips, I.D.  (2004) Specification and prediction of monthly and seasonal rainfall over the South West Peninsula of England.  Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 130: 193-210.

Phillips, I.D. (2003) Four South West Birmingham Flood Events.  Weather, 57: 143-155.

Phillips, I.D, McGregor, G.R., Wilson, C.J., Bower, D. and Hannah, D.M. (2003) Regional climate and atmospheric circulation controls on the discharge of two British rivers, 1974-97.  Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 71: 141-164.

Lawler, D.M., McGregor, G.R. and Phillips, I.D.  (2003) Influence of atmospheric circulation changes and regional climate variability on river flow and suspended sediment fluxes in southern Iceland.  Hydrological Processes, 17: 3195-3223.

Phillips, I.D. and McGregor, G.R.  (2002) The relationship between monthly and seasonal South-West England rainfall anomalies and North Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures.  International Journal of Climatology, 22: 197-217.

Phillips, I.D. and McGregor, G.R. (2001a) The relationship between synoptic scale airflow direction and daily rainfall: a methodology applied to Devon and Cornwall, South West England.  Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 69: 179-198.

Phillips, I.D. and McGregor, G.R. (2001b) Western European water vapour flux – South West England rainfall associations.  Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2: 505-524.

Books

Phillips, I.D.  (2001) Entries for Winds, Precipitation, Atmospheric Stability and Atmospheric Pressure, In: Smith, J. (Ed.).  The Facts on File Dictionary of Weather and Climate.  Market House Books.  Aylesbury, UK.  250pp.

Book Reviews

Phillips, I.D. (2002a) Review of “Austrian Long-term Climate 1767-2000: Multiple Instrumental Climate Time Series from Central Europe”.  Edited by I. Auer, R. Bohm, W. Schoner.  International Journal of Climatology, 22: 1143

Phillips, I.D.  (2002b) Review of “History and Climate: Memories of the Future?”  Edited by P.D. Jones, A.E.J. Ogilvie, T.D. Davies and K.R. Briffa.  International Journal of Climatology, 22: 1569-1570.

Phillips, I.D. (2002c) Review of “Synoptic and Dynamic Climatology”.  Edited by R.G. Barry and A.M. Carleton.  Geography.

Date Profile Last Updated: 28/07/2009