Declassified Files: Secretary of state privately feared civil service whitewash over 1995 Stormont fire

A shambolic series of failures by the civil service which contributed to the fire which destroyed the old Stormont Commons Chamber in 1995 and an attempt to “gloss over” them are laid bare in a series of recently declassified files.
The devastating 1995 fire in parliament Buildings destroyed the old Commons Chamber. It was subsequently repaired and is now the Assembly chamber.The devastating 1995 fire in parliament Buildings destroyed the old Commons Chamber. It was subsequently repaired and is now the Assembly chamber.
The devastating 1995 fire in parliament Buildings destroyed the old Commons Chamber. It was subsequently repaired and is now the Assembly chamber.

Although many of the failures were known about at the time, the files show that secretary of state Sir Patrick Mayhew believed that the Northern Ireland Civil Service’s response to what had been revealed in a report into the fire “give the impression of a whitewash”.

The secretary of state commented in response to a document approved by Stormont’s most senior bureaucrat – the head of the Civil Service, Sir David Fell – in response to a report by senior fire officer Sir Reginald Doyle.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He concluded: “Looked at collectively, the accumulation of events contributing to the promotion of the fire appear almost too numerous to be believable.”

He established that the last fire drill in Parliament Buildings had been five and a half years earlier.

Sir Reginald also found that the building’s watchkeepers had spent the entire night in the building while the fire was burning in the Assembly chamber yet despite smelling an unusual smell and carrying out a series of patrols as part of their duties, at no point did their raise the alarm.

A question and answer sheet prepared for the secretary of state, asked ‘why has no disciplinary action been taken against the watchkeepers’. It said: “The watchkeepers have been interviewed by the RUC, Sir Reginald Doyle and their personnel officer. There is no evidence to suggest that they did not patrol the building. They took steps to establish the cause of an unusual smell [but] detected nothing amiss.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The report indicates that the fire occurred in the largest single chamber in the building with no external windows, thereby having the greatest chance of unrestricted and unobserved progress. It is the view of the Department of Finance and Personnel that formal disciplinary proceedings against the watchkeepers could not have been sustained.”

The report also found that the hydrant system was dry because a valve which controlled the flow of water from the reservoir to the hydrants had been turned off.

However, the secretary of state was told that “despite extensive enquiries, it has not been possible to determine who turned off the supply or the exact date. It is known that the hydrants were in operation on 20 September 1994 but were dry on 15 December.”

The valve key was the responsibility of the superintendent of mechanical works on the Stormont Estate who was “not aware that the key was missing”. The key was described as 2m in length.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He was responsible for weekly tests of the hydrant system “however, he stopped doing so in October 1994 when he saw work being carried out to the system”. He was given an “oral reprimand”.

Sir Patrick was told that four separate officials “became aware that the hydrant was dry” and reported that to others but “they individually made the erroneous assumption that the matter would be attended to by others”.

A memo in response to the report said that Sir Patrick had “real concern about the actions of the watchmen staff” and that he felt that “the Doyle report was silent on a number of key issues, notably the nature of the fire and the characteristics which might have made it detectable”.

In a sharp April 5, 1995 confidential memo to the head of the civil service, Sir David Fell, the secretary of state’s private secretary made clear his boss’s displeasure at how the civil service had proposed he respond to the report.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “The Secretary of State is concerned that, as drafted, both the Government response and the press release appear to try and gloss over the very serious failings identified in the Doyle Report and combine to give the impression of a whitewash.

“Not only is this undesirable in its own right, it will also generate substantial criticism from others, notably Peter Robinson who is, undoubtedly, already waiting in the wings to pounce.”

He said that Sir Patrick believed that there were “some very serious and fundamental shortcomings identified in the report”. He added that the Secretary of State wanted to speak to Sir David and other senior civil servants about the matter. Someone wrote by hand on the memo: “Ouch!”.

Sir David had previously seen the proposal which the secretary of state rejected and said he was content with the “thrust” of its advice.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Internally, two Stormont departments with shared responsibility for Parliament Buildings sought to absolve themselves of the blame for some of the failures.

In a memo on March 15, civil servant Dierdre Kenny said bluntly: “The din of bucks being passed is deafening!” as two departments each appeared “more interested in denying it has any responsibility for the fact that Parliament Buildings has no Fire Certificate and in ensuring that the blame falls squarely on the other”.