The blaze that started in the subcontractors' office of the Broadgate phase eight project on 23 June 1990, was supposed to be the turning point. Flames reaching tempratures of 1,000 degrees tore through the mixed-use development and 20 fire brigade units were called to tackle the fire that consumed the building for over four hours. In its wake, the fire left more than £25m of damage, around £2m of which was structural frame and floor damage. A former director of one of the contractors working on the Broadgate development [who wishes to remain anonymous] remembers the first time he went back on site after the incident. He describes steel columns "[measuring] a foot and a half by a foot and a half", which once supported the weight of the building had buckled into an'S' shape and were left abandoned in the yard.
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