Please be advised, the following episode contains scenes of an extremely graphic nature that may be distressing for some listeners.

As the flames rolled ever higher into the night sky, the thick clouds that had been so grey only hours before

were now lit up, turning a strange shade of sanguine in the process.

It gave the impression, if only just for a moment, that it wasn't drops of rain that were falling, but drops of blood.

As the merciless downpour continued, mixed with flashes of lightning and eruptions of thunder,

it was as if everything had been turned on its head, the heavens above, replaced by the bowels of hell.

But where heaven had gone to exactly, none could say, for surely wherever it was, it certainly wasn't down here,

the east end of London, 1888.

The fires had begun sometime in the evening, the first having broken out at the South Key warehouses.

A scent of charcoal had blown softly through the streets, before the fire announced itself with an immense explosion from out at the dockyard.

Before long, 200 yards of warehouse stuffed with the dubious spoils of colonial practices,

were ablaze under that reddening august sky, flashing with electricity.

Each jagged discharge appearing like rips in the air, cracks that might at any point be opened up, for something abominable to come through.

Three hours later, with the help of 12 steam pumper fire engines and almost 100 firefighters, the flames were subdued, and the men able to return to their beds.

But chaos will not be stilled.

At shortly before 1 o'clock, another call came in.

A second fire had broken out at Ratcliffe dry dock, even more devastating than the first.

A large two-story warehouse was soon consumed.

The flames then danced on the wind across the yard, and set light to a sailing ship fresh in for repairs, before making their way to the mother load.

A 120-foot-long warehouse stuffed with 800 tons of coal.

Hundreds of nearby residents crammed into the surrounding tenements, now threatened by the flames, poured into the street fearing for their lives.

Others drawn in by the strange confluence of chaos, beauty and destruction came simply to watch the ominous spectacle.

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