Recovering from a fire at Windsor Castle

Back in November 1992 a large fire spread though Windsor Castle. It was devastating for the royal family as this is one of the Queen’s official residences and also to the country as it is one of the much-loved buildings here in London. The fire began at around 11.30am on the 20^th November and continued to burn for around 12 hours as it spread from the Queen’s chapel, to the Brunswick Tower, the banquet hall of St George and finally up to the private apartments.

Image Credit

The castle staff would have had training in place much like those that are provided to businesses by Fire Safety Consultancy Bristol company http://keloscape.co.uk/areas-we-cover/fire-safety-consultancy-bristol/ in order to ensure that everyone is kept safe during any fire outbreak. The news of the fire quickly spread across the globe as people anxiously waited to hear news on the damage that had been caused.

The investigation following the fire found that it had been started in the Queen’s Chapel by a spotlight with a 1,000-watt bulb that can overheated and set lit to a curtain that was close to the spotlight. As the property is historic there was not the modern level of fire protection and firebreaks to help prevent the fire from spreading from its original location. This is why the fire managed to spread such a long way and so quickly. This is often the case in historical properties.

Image Credit

The staff who were at the castle at the time with a number of the royals tried desperately to rescue as many of the precious and valuable pieces of art, furniture and some of the many antiques in the property. AT the time of the fire there was some rewiring works taking place in the castle and so many of the valuable items such as paintings and items of furniture had already been removed from the castle.

As you would expect the castle has its own fire team of around 20 staff members and they are located just two miles away. They appeared within just a few minutes of the alarm being raised. In total around 225 firemen and 39 vehicles with fire appliances were dispatched to bring the fire under control.  It is thought that around 1.5 million gallons of water was used to contain the fire.

The restoration works needed took a total of five years and were finally completed in November 1997 costing around £36.5 million.