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Into the shaft at an angle and raced upwards. in the confined trench, the fire could only draw air from below, creating a draft. >> because the air can't come round the fire, it has to come effectively through the fire. >> investigators then ran a bigger test on a one-third sized model of the complete king's cross station. if the trench effect worked this time, it would prove their theory was right. >> in three or four seconds the flames were from upright, then lying along the escalator trench. from then on, it was just predicted which is very gratifying. >> it is clear the previously unknown ...

>> the escalator trench acted as a chimney, made not of brick, but of highly flammable wood. at 7:45, a torrent of superheated gas rushed up the escalator, priming everything in its path to burn. >> the sudden movement of the fire up the escalator was called the flashover. it burst into the booking hall at the top. >> the hot gases and flames exploded into the ticket hall, feeding off years of thick paint on the walls and three tons of varnished wood on the escalator below. the cavernous room was a death trap. >> those people would have died extremely quickly. if there's anything, if there's a...

Number 4 approximately 1 minute before flashover had described the fire as being relatively small. >> but then the fire spread across the steps. the bottom of the trench. it could only draw oxygen from one direction, from below. this was the trench effect. >> the flames were deflected into the trench and began to flow up the treads, the risers, and exposing the balustrades to high levels of heat flux. >> from there, the gases are going up the escalator trench ahead of the flame. they're heating the wood quite considerably. gets quite hot even though there's no flame there. >> it's sucking up t...