When the fires of hell erupted into the night

A TERRIFYING rumbling shattering a still winter’s night, was the prelude to Ireland’s worst maritime disaster, a quarter of a century ago.

The subsequent explosion aboard the ill-fated supertanker Betelgeuse discharged a massive fireball which turned the West Cork night sky orange and spewed its flames over Bantry Bay.

As temperatures soared to almost 1,000 degrees, 50 people, including a crewman’s wife, perished. Crewmen aboard the badly-rusting and fractured tanker, along with workers at the Whiddy Island oil terminal were blown by the force of the explosion into the burning sea.