Declassified files: Watchkeepers patrolled Parliament Buildings for eight hours as fire burned

Sir Reginald Doyle’s report into the Stormont fire, which was published at the time, found that at about 8.50am on Monday January 2, 1995 smoke was observed from some distance away and was seen to be rising above Stormont.
By Sam McBride
Published 7th Jan 2020, 07:31 BST
Updated 8th Jan 2020, 01:15 BST
The fire completely destroyed the old Commons ChamberThe fire completely destroyed the old Commons Chamber
The fire completely destroyed the old Commons Chamber

It was a public holiday and the building was unoccupied except for the watchkeepers. Between midnight and 1am, watchkeepers on patrol in the building “noticed an unusual smell which they could not identify or associate with a specific area in the building”.

He said that it was “sufficiently strong however to prompt a further search ... but no cause for the smell could be found”. The final inspection of their shift started at 7am and passed the doors to the chamber at about 8.20am but they noticed “nothing untoward”.

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By about 8.50am, two RUC dog handlers entering the Stormont Estate noticed smoke, unsuccessfully attempted to enter the building through its main doors and then radioed for help.

On entering the building, they found thick smoke in the corridors and a fierce fire in the chamber. They tried to use fire extinguishers but were unable to get the fire hose to work and had to retreat because of intense smoke and heat.

However, when the fire brigade arrived after 9am, they said that watchkeepers within the building were still unaware of the inferno.

Sir Reginald said that by 9.12am when the first firemen inside alerted their commanders with the message “building well alight”, he was clear that “at this stage the fire was about to erupt and break out along the first floor corridors and offices” and without the firemen, it could have been far more damaging, especially because the dry water hydrant meant that “a much more serious fire ... would have been a major problem had more water been required”.

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By 9.48, the fire had been declared a major incident and senior civil servants worked with fire crews to recover or protect public records and documents in the parliamentary library and the basement.

By 11.29am, the fire had been extinguished. The most intense burning was found to be under the Speaker’s chair, where the floor joists under the chair had in one section been totally burnt away to the level of the concrete floor. A number of electric wires entered the chamber beneath the chair and he said there was evidence of short circuiting at this point but “no evidence of any incendiary device or any flammable liquids”.