One Year On: The Golden Sands Survivors pay their respects - Samantha Brick reports
It was a photo that shook the forum. As Lucas Michael, then just 20 years old, was pulled from the rubble of an entertainment centre, we couldn't help but stand and watch.
"To be fair, I didn't really want to help him either," one bystander, Christopher Smith, commented.
Investigations into what caused the dramatic and sudden collapse of Dawlish's #1 arts venue are still ongoing, although local authorities have since ruled out the likelihood of it being deliberate. Others who were there aren't quite so forgiving.
"There was this guy, Locke he used to introduce himself as - he'd go around at night cutting off power and stealing tractors. I still don't buy the story that he had nothing to do with this," a Jake Heh seethes, cracking open his fourth expired Lilt of the interview. "All I'm saying is he's basically Scouse so to write him off is a bit ****ing stupid."
Stupid or otherwise, placing the blame anywhere seems a rather moot point when faced with the pictures of what happened that day. Whilst Michael was lucky to be pulled from the wreckage and tell his tale, others were not.
Since this photo went viral on Twitter, efforts to trace this survivor - said to be much older than the others and not nearly as memorable - have been unfruitful. Some even claim the man fled the country in shock, with rumoured sightings in South Korea and Latvia. But for one brief moment in March 2015, he captured the hearts of a nation.
As footage rolled in of the destruction, forum members and survivors gathered together to sing songs and light candles for those fallen.
"There's no chance I'd go back," a Mr. Evans fights back the tears in our interview. "The memories... what memories I have, that is, they've all been tainted by what happened." Before I could get a chance to ask him why his hands were black - another casualty of the disaster, or something else? - he soon lost himself in the crowd of well-wishers.
"It's affected some of us more than it has others," one Jessica recalled, "just the other day I saw graffiti on the Dawlish Memorial, something saying 'Justice For TREVOR' - I've no idea what that even means but it just goes to show that there's a lot of anger about what happened. Personally? I preferred the Glenn/Nicole Burks meetup, that was just a nicer ending really."
Whilst other TiBB events will take to our hearts in special, more innocent ways, what happened just one year ago will continue to beguile and fascinate for many more to come.
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