The Windsor Castle Fire
An enormous fire overtook the royal home in November 1992 after beginning in the Queen’s private chapel, where a curtain was pressed against a spotlight. The fire began in the Queen’s Private Chapel at 11:15 in the morning when a curtain was ignited by a spotlight pressed up against it. Agents of the Royal Household were in the chapel at the time inspecting works of art. A fire alarm went off in the watch room of the castle fire brigade, manned by the Chief Fire Officer, Marshall Smith. The location of the fire was shown by a light on a grid map of the castle. Initially, the Brunswick Tower was lit up, but lights soon began to flash indicating that the fire had quickly spread to neighboring rooms. A major part of the State Apartments was soon ablaze. Building contractors working in a nearby room attempted to tackle the blaze using fire extinguishers.
Apart from the several hundred firemen directly involved in the fire-fight, staff and tradesmen helped the castle’s fire brigade and volunteer salvage corps move furniture and works of art from the endangered apartments, including a 150-foot (46 m) long table and a 120-foot long carpet from the Waterloo Chamber, to the safety of the castle’s riding school. It was an enormous operation. The major loss was to the fabric of the castle. The false ceiling in St George’s Hall and the void for coal trucks beneath the floor had allowed the fire to spread. It burned as far as the Chester Tower. Several ceilings collapsed. Apartments burnt included the Crimson Drawing Room (completely gutted), the Green Drawing Room (badly damaged, though only partially destroyed by smoke and water) and the Queen’s Private Chapel (including the double-sided 19th century Henry Willis organ in the gallery between St George’s Hall and Private Chapel, oak paneling, glass and the altar).