Decade of Disaster – How It All Began
This chapter traces the origins of Disaster Action, which lie in the personal experiences of individuals. A number of disasters occurred between 1985 and 1989, each involving many deaths and injuries — physical and psychological — within relatively quick succession. After each major disaster of the 1980s, relatives, friends, and survivors formed support groups to help those directly affected. The questions of how and why people had died and been injured and how similar disasters might be prevented in the future drove those from different backgrounds, of all religious persuasions and none, to come together. Each group had its own focus — for Zeebrugge, ro-ro ferry safety; for Lockerbie, airline and airport security; for the Marchioness, a full inquest and riverboat safety. These groups worked tirelessly to cope with and campaign on issues relating to their own tragic circumstances, lobbying government and other interest groups. The chapter then details how the disparate individuals and groups affected by this series of preventable tragedies in the 1980s come together to form the umbrella association that was to be Disaster Action. Ultimately, Disaster Action was established out of a collective will to see a more just and safer Britain.