Originally posted on 7 March 2013 by Roger Imm

Do you remember the date?
57 Sqn Toilet RIP

From memory since I have misplaced (hopefully only temporally) my pictures and original write up on this event.

It was a cold January evening (1970?), snow lay thick upon the ground and I was working the night shift at the 57 Squadron dispersal. The dispersal was on the peri track on the West side of the main runway. The aircraft parking was in four semi circles, two on each side of the peri-track, accommodating 8 aircraft. The dispersal buildings consisted of a large Nissen hut connected to a series of flat-roofed buildings at the rear and a standalone brick toilet on the North East side. Much changed from today’s Google Earth picture which shows that only the two original Nissen huts are still standing.

I was sitting in the ground crew rest area when it happened. Suddenly, there was a large explosion that shook the hut and all the lights went out. This was followed by a crescendo of sound as blow after blow struck the building. We fumbled around seeking torches and several of us ran for the door. It was pitch black and we could see nothing. It was strangely quiet and then a siren began to wail in the distance. Most of us didn’t know what to think, were we under attack? We noticed broken bricks all over the ground. Someone shone a torch in the direction of the toilet hut and we noticed that it was gone. Before long most of the shift were standing around looking at the carnage. We counted heads and with relief everyone was accounted for. We were quickly instructed to examine all the aircraft for damage. The fire brigade came and went, informing us that the toilet hut had exploded and a brick had landed on the Radio Bay some distance away.  It was the next day before we fully discovered what had happened. The toilet was a small oblong brick building with a concrete slab foundation. The door was on the North-West corner. The building had no heat. A gas Ascot provided hot water.  Investigation showed that the water inlet to the water heater had frozen. Several safety features had failed allowing steam pressure to increase as the water level was drawn down. At some point the holding tank failed. It was reduced to a completely flat sheet of steel. The blast was sufficient to flatten the building, just a single toilet bowl minus seat was left standing. An eerie sight on the snow covered ground. Bricks were recovered up to 1/2 mile from the hut. Most of us had made the cold trudge through the snow to use the facility that evening. It was a miracle that no one was in or near the building when it exploded.

Many yarns were told about the probable cause of the explosion.