Missed a Hot Departure Not me, but when my mum was a teenager on November 18, 1987, she was going to London to visit a friend. It was around 7:20 pm and she decided she was going to take a taxi instead of going by tube because it didn't feel right (King's Cross tube station). Ten minutes later, the whole station caught on fire and 30 out of the 40 people died. If she had decided to take the tube, she would likely have died.