Windsor On Fire

Fire of 1992

Timeline

November 20, 1992, 11:15 am. A spotlight had been pressed against a curtain in an art gallery. This innocent action would soon cause millions of dollars worth of destruction. The 30-foot curtain was ignited and the fire soon spread to the rest of the Queen's private Chapel.

11:36 am. The Castle's personal fire squad was alerted. The fire squad consisted of 20 men, 6 of whom were full time.

11:41 am. The fire squad arrived on the scene with only one, large pump. It was not enough to stop the blaze that soon spread Brunswick Tower and later to the rest of the States apartments.

11:54 am. An operation was initiated to salvage the art and artifacts that were to be destroyed if not rescued.

12:12 pm. Over 20 fire trucks were at the fire and by 12:20 there was over 35, with over 200 fire fighters at the burning castle. There was over 40 hoses directed at all levels of the building. There hadn't been a fire of this scale in greater London since 1977.

1:30 pm. The main fire in Brunswick Tower was starting to come under control. This was when the roof of the States Apartment collapsed.

3:30 pm. The fire-fighters had to withdraw when multiple floors in Brunswick Tower collapsed. 3 men were lost in the smoke only to be seen 20 minutes later when it all cleared.

3:50 pm. The roof of Brunswick Tower fell. The main fire was just about out.

4:15 pm. The fire in Brunswick Tower relight and was bigger than ever. At 6:30 pm flames were recorded of being over 50 feet tall.

7 pm. The St. George Hall collapsed.

9 pm. All efforts of put on Brunswick Tower. 30 minutes later the main fire is contained. It continues to burn for another 3 hours.

11:30 pm. The fire in Brunswick Tower is put out. Only two more secondary fires blaze on.

2:30 am. After 15 hours and 1 1/2 million gallons of water, all of the fires have been extinguished.

Aftermath

Over 100 rooms had either been destroyed by the fire or damaged by water and smoke. Several ceilings had collapsed and Brunswick Tower was leveled. Other rooms and buildings that were destroyed were the Star Chamber, Cornwall tower, Prince of Wales Tower, the Great Kitchen, and the Holbein Room. Many artifacts and paintings had been removed from an assortment of rooms but the portrait "George III and the prince of Wales Reviewing Troops", was too big to be removed. Several chandeliers, a few items of porcelain, and an organ were also lost in the fire. Luckily, no one was killed or injured in the fire.

Restoration

At first, the expected cost to repair Windsor was feared to be about $100 million but luckily it only cost $58 million. Also, it took 10 years to dry out the castle from the water damage. Several projects were undertaken to restore Windsor. Most of the damaged buildings were restored as they were originally but the Queens private Chapel and several other rooms were fitted with modern conveniences and had a more modern style to them. To fund these projects, Buckingham Palace charged £8 for every visitor for 5 years which covered 70% of the cost. The queen also paid £2 million and in 1993, she agreed to start paying income tax from then forwards.

Parts of Windsor reopened to the public in late 1993 including the State Apartments and the rest opened early 1994. The restoration process wasn't complete until 1998, a year later than expected.