For those trapped inside, there was no warning—just the smell of smoke. However, days before the unthinkable happened, the nightclub's owners had been warned of its dangers. The Top Storey nightclub on Crown Street, Bolton , opened in January 1961. Located on the top two floors of an old mill warehouse building off Deansgate, it was the town's new and "hip" place for young men and women to drink and dance. Its original owner, Stanley Wilcock, rented the old warehouse and used the lower floors for his business, making kitchen furniture. In March 1961, Wilcock sold his interest in the nightclub to Manchester businessmen Denis Wilson and Richard Sorrensen. The club's main floor was divided by a bamboo screen and was popular for its swing and cabaret nights, often played with a live three-piece band. At one end was a bar, with the remainder of the club taken up by a dance floor surrounded by tables. Along one wall was a row of one-armed bandits for its patrons to indulge in a little light gambling. According to a description in The Bolton News, the room, which held between 150 and 200 people, could only be accessed at the far end from a steep and narrow wooden staircase. The staircase dropped into the lower storey and a maze of passages and landings that eventually ran into the street. The club's new owners had been warned of safety issues regarding a potential fire weeks before. It was later revealed that Bolton's fire chief had written to the club's owners about the lack of an adequate fire escape. The warehouse building's owners discovered the club was being run without planning permission. On the evening of May 1, 1961, they told the club owners that they would have to vacate when their lease ended in June. Minutes after the building's representatives left, one of the club's owners, Denis Wilson, went to the Top Storey bar, knowing his club was on borrowed time. There were only between 20 and 25 other people in the club that Monday night. Half an hour later, around 11 pm, the club's manager, Bill Bohannon, smelled smoke. After venturing down the wooden staircase that served as the club's entrance and exit, he discovered smoke coming from under the door to the furniture workshop below. Days later, Mr Bohannon told The Guardian he immediately rang the fire brigade from the club office before attempting to get back upstairs. He told the newspaper: "I had to fight my way upstairs. A wave of heat seemed to meet me. I raised the alarm, then went back down to try to tackle the flames, but no one followed me down. "I could not get back up so I went round to the back. I saw someone falling from a window. I held out my arms, a terrific weight struck me and I was flung forward. I found that I had broken the fall of Gillian Grimshaw, my sister-in-law." He continued: "It must have been then that I broke my leg, but I did not feel it at first. Two more men came down. I dived into the river and held them up until the police came." Mr Bohannon later told an inquest of his efforts to extinguish the fire as soon as he discovered it. He said: "I kicked the door with my right foot and burst the bolt open. It was an inferno inside – a mass of flames. I (really) tried to fight the fire, but I had nothing to fight it with." It was later revealed that he had saved the life of his sister-in-law, who had leapt 60ft from a window before Mr Bohannon broke her fall. The fire brigade arrived at an inferno just minutes after the alarm was raised. However, due to the heat and flames, they could not enter the club and couldn't access the back window with a ladder because of the river. The inquest into the fire heard that several people survived the blaze by jumping from the burning top floor of the building and into the River Croal below. However, four people also died when they made the desperate leap 80ft from the top floor into the river. The miraculous survivor of the blaze, 17-year-old Gillian Grimshaw, spoke to the Manchester Evening News the day after the fire. Sitting up in her hospital bed, she told journalists about her experience the previous night. She said: "I was sitting with my sister. Then someone came running and shouted 'fire'. By the time we got to the exit, it was filled with smoke. "Then the lights went out and I never saw my sister again. Everyone was scrambling to get out of the one small window. "Someone smashed it. They were screaming and shouting. It was horrible. I think I was the first there. I forced my way through and sat on the ledge. "I don't think my clothes were on fire, but I felt as though I was burning. I don't know whether I jumped, fell, or was pushed, but I fell backwards to the ground. "I knew there was a river down there, but I didn't land in it. I was in a blind panic. "My brother-in-law, Bill Bohannon, who had run down the stairs earlier, helped to break my fall. As I lay on the ground two men fell after me, landing on their stomachs or backs with a thud." On that terrible night, 14 people lost their lives inside the club – victims of the smoke and flames. Five others died when they jumped or fell from the window ledges in a desperate attempt to escape. It's thought two or three of those who jumped, including Gilliam Grimshaw, survived. In total, 11 men and eight women died. Among them were Denis Wilson and Richard Sorrensen, the club's owners, and Sheila Bohannon, wife of the manager Bill Bohannon, who raised the alarm. As a result of the tragedy, running nightclubs would never be the same again. An investigation found no actual cause for the fire could be given and the Coroner recorded an open verdict. Yet the horrifying number of deaths and the warnings made by the Fire Brigade Union and others within the fire service forced the government to act quickly. Parliament enacted the Licensing Act 1961, which enabled fire brigades to inspect clubs and made club owners legally responsible for providing fire exits and extinguishers. Later changes to the laws gave fire brigades the power to close nightclubs if they failed safety standards. Bill Bohannon remarried and died in 2013 at the age of 84 following a battle with cancer. His wife, Beryl, said her husband continued to be haunted by the terrible fire in May 1961. She told The Bolton News : "What happened never went away. It was always there. When we were away he would always check where the fire exits were in the building." Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and, Breaking News group by clicking this link