AS club manager Bill Bohannon felt the tragedy of the Top Storey fire more than most.

He was injured in the blaze and saw 19 guests perish that night.

But tragically, among those to die was his wife Sheila, with whom he had a six-year-old son, Barry.

He was aged just 32 at the time.

Now retired and living in Blackpool, he says it is a time he does not like to remember, but a time he will never forget.

“I don’t think about it very often at all,” the 82-year-old said.

“It was a horrid thing and the one thing you want to forget.

“But it was a terrifying experience and in that way, I’ll never forget it. It was a huge tragedy.”

The club manager was with his wife, also aged 32, that night.

He was the first to realise something was wrong.

He added: “We were upstairs drinking. I smelled smoke and I thought, ‘someone’s left a cigarette burning here’. I went downstairs and tried to open a door,t it flew open and the smoke and flames hit me. I tried to get back up the stairs but I collapsed and fell back down.”

After the tragedy, Mr Bohannon went to live with his parents.

He later joined the Merchant Navy and served for 10 years, leaving his son Barry at home with his parents.

Mr Bohannon added: “Going into the Merchant Navy helped me forget and get on with my life. It was good for me.”

He later went into the pub business in Kent, where he met his second wife, Beryl.

Mr Bohannon moved back to Bolton where he worked as a butcher and then went into the hotel business in Blackpool.

Now retired, he and his wife remain in the seaside town.

Mr Bohannon’s son lives in Rochdale.

He also adopted his second wife’s two sons, who now live in Australia.