1992 Windsor Castle fire

The 1992 Windsor Castle fire occurred on Friday, 20 November 1992 in Windsor Castle, to the west of London, England the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of the British monarch, Elizabeth II. The castle suffered severe damage in a fire, which destroyed some of the most historic parts of the building. Over the next few years the castle was fully repaired at great expense. The question of how the funds required should be found raised important issues about the financing of the monarchy, and led to Buckingham Palace being opened to the public for the first time to help to pay for the restoration.

The progress of the fire

The fire began in The Queen's Private Chapel at 11:33 am on Friday 20 November 1992, when a spotlight ignited a curtain. The alarm went off in the watch-room of the Castle fire brigade, manned by Chief Fire Office Marshall Smith. The site of the fire was shown by a light on a large grid map of the whole castle. Initially the Brunswick Tower alone was indicated, but lights soon lit up indicating that the fire had quickly spread to several neighbouring rooms. The major part of the State Apartments were soon ablaze.
Patrolling firemen were paged by an automatic system, and at 11:37 am Mr Smith pressed the switch to alert the Control Room at Reading. He then activated the public fire alarm, known as an ER7 alert (a continuous high pitch tone), and telephoned the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service on a direct line.
Mr Smith proceeded to the Brunswick Tower to assess the situation, and to begin the salvage operations which, together with fire precautions, had been the main responsibility of the castle brigade since the county force took over responsibility for fire-fighting at Windsor Castle in September 1991.
The Castle still had its own 20 strong force, of whom six were full-time. Equipped with a Land Rover and pump tender, they were based in the Royal Mews, stables south of the castle.
The first appliances of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service arrived at the castle between 11:44 am and 11:45 am, some 7–8 minutes after the alert was given. By 11:48 am 10 pumping appliances had been ordered to the fire and the principal officer on duty within the brigade the Deputy Chief Officer David Harper had been informed.
By 12:12 pm there were 20 engines, and by 12:20 pm there were 35, with over 200 firemen from London, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, and Oxfordshire, as well as from Berkshire.
The Fire Incident Commander was David Harper, Deputy Chief Fire and Rescue Officer of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service. The Chief Officer Garth Scotford was out of the country, on holiday.
By 12:20 pm the fire had spread to St George's Hall, the largest of the State Apartments, and further reinforcements were called. The fire-fighting forces by then totalled 39 appliances (including two hydraulic platforms) and 225 fire-fighters. As an indication of the scale of the fire, there had been only one 30-appliance fire in the whole of Greater London since 1973.
By 1:30 pm firebreaks had been erected by tradesmen at the southern wall of the Green Drawing Room (at the end of St George's Hall on the east side of the Quadrangle), and at the north-west corner at Chester Tower, where that tower joins the Grand Corridor. The fire-fighters had by this time begun to bring the fire under control (though the roof of the State Apartments had begun to collapse).
At 3:30 pm the fire was surrounded, and the floors of the Brunswick Tower collapsed, concentrating the fire there. Firemen had to temporarily withdraw to locate three men who were briefly lost in the smoke, and on a second occasion withdrew when men were temporarily unaccounted for when a roof fell in.
At 4:15 pm the fire had revived in the Brunswick Tower. As night fell the fire was concentrated in the Brunswick Tower, which by 6:30 pm was engulfed in flames 50 feet (15 m) high, which could be seen for many miles. At 7 pm the fire broke through the roof of the tower, and later the roof of St George's Hall finally collapsed into the conflagration.
By 8 pm the fire was finally under control, having burnt for nine hours, although it continued to burn for a further three hours. By 11 pm however the main fire was extinguished, and by 2:30 am the last secondary fires were put out. Pockets of fire remained alive until early Saturday, some 15 hours later. Sixty firemen with eight appliances remained on duty for several more days.
The fire had spread rapidly due to lack of fire stopping in cavities and roof voids.
Over one million gallons (4,500 tons) of water from Castle mains and from the River Thames had been used in fighting the fire.

Forces involved in fighting the fire

Apart from the several hundred firemen directly involved in fighting the fire, staff and tradesmen helped the Castle fire brigade and volunteer salvage corps members. They removed furniture and works of art from the endangered apartments, including a 150-foot (46 m) long table, and a 120-foot (37 m) long carpet from the Waterloo Chamber, to the safety of the castle Riding School. Also removed, in an enormous logistics exercise, were 300 clocks, a collection of miniatures, many thousands of valuable books and manuscripts, and old Master drawings from the Royal Library.
On fire officers' instructions heavy chests and tables were left behind. All items were placed on giant sheets of plastic on the North Terrace and in the Quadrangle, and the police called in dozens of removal vans from a large part of the Home Counties to carry items to other parts of the Castle.
Others of the Castle staff involved included Major Barry Eastwood, Castle Superintendent (head of administration), and the Governor of the Castle, General Sir Patrick Palmer. The staff of St. George's Chapel and Estate workers also assisted in various ways.
Members of the Royal Household helped, including the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Airlie. The Royal Collection Department were especially active, including the Director Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue, the Surveyor of Pictures Christopher Lloyd, the Deputy Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art Hugh Roberts, the Curator of Print Room the Hon Mrs Roberts, and Librarian Oliver Everett.
The Household Cavalry arrived from Combermere Barracks, St Leonard's Road, Windsor. Some 100 officers and men of the Life Guards also proved invaluable for moving bulky items. Officers of the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department, led by Chief Inspector KR Miller, were also present.
Elizabeth II had been advised of the fire by a mobile phone call from the Duke of York. The Duke had been in the mews across the Quadrangle from the State Apartments, doing research work for his course at the Staff College, Camberley when the fire broke out.
The Queen arrived at 3 pm and stayed at the castle for an hour, returning again the following morning. The Prince of Wales visited in the evening and the Duke of York briefed the press at 3 pm.

Extent of damage to the Castle

There had been no serious injuries, and no deaths. Dean Lansdale (aged 21), a decorator in the Private Chapel, was burnt while removing pictures (of which he had rescued three). He was moved to the royal surgery then to hospital. Christopher Lloyd, the Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures, suffered a suspected heart attack, while five firemen were taken to hospital, two with hypothermia, three with minor burns and dust in their eyes.
The major loss was to the fabric of the Castle. The false roof above St George's Hall and the void beneath the floors for coal trucks had allowed the fire to spread. It burnt as far as the Chester Tower. Several ceilings collapsed. Apartments burnt included the Crimson Drawing Room (which was 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 nineteenth century Henry Willis organ in the gallery between St George's Hall and Private Chapel, oak panelling, glass, and the altar).
St George's Hall partially survived, with the wall largely intact, but with the ceiling collapsed. The State Dining Room (in the Prince of Wales Tower; which was badly damaged, as was the fabric of the tower), and the Grand Reception Room (80% severely damaged, though 20% of the ceiling was eventually saved) were also devastated.
Smaller apartments damaged or destroyed (and over 100 rooms were involved in the fire) included the Star Chamber, Octagon Room, Brunswick Tower, Cornwall Tower, Prince of Wales Tower (badly damaged), Chester Tower (badly damaged), Holbein Room, and the Great Kitchen (which lost its plaster cove, and most of its mediæval timber).
The external wall above the bay window of the Crimson Drawing Room (between the Prince of Wales and Chester Towers) was seriously calcified.
The Waterloo Chamber was undamaged, as were the Grand Vestibule, Rubens Room, Ante-Throne Room, Throne Room, Ball Room, Serving Room, and China Closet (which was not affected although it was surrounded by the fire). Overall some 80% of the area of the staterooms was undamaged.
Fortuitously the seven most seriously damaged rooms had largely been emptied the previous day for rewiring. The Castle had just completed an 18-month phase of rewiring in most of the rooms destroyed.
Items from the Royal Collection lost included the Sir William Beechey equestrian portrait George III at a Review, which was too large to remove from its frame; a large late 1820s sideboard by Morel and Seddon (18 feet long); several pieces of porcelain; several chandeliers; as well as the Willis organ; and the 1851 Great Exhibition Axminster carpet partly burnt.
Tourists were allowed into the precincts within three days. The Queen was in residence a fortnight later. The Gallery and Queen Mary's Dolls' House reopened in December. The State Apartments reopened early 1993 after rewiring was completed, with all major rooms open by Easter, when only St George's Hall and the Grand Reception Room remained closed. Thus 11 of 15 principal rooms of the State Apartments were open, with two still undergoing long-term restoration, and two more destroyed.

National Lottery (United Kingdom)

The National Lottery

Region	United Kingdom and Isle of Man
Launched	1994
Operator	Camelot Group
Regulated By	National Lottery Commission
Highest Jackpot	£999,993,225
Odds of winning	994,686,972 to 1 (Lotto), 1,016,274,116 to 1 (Thunderball), 1 in 908,115,241 (Euromillions)
Number of Games	6
Shown on	BBC One

The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.
It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then prime minister John Major in 1994.
All prizes are paid as a lump sum and are tax-free. Of every pound (£) spent on National Lottery games, 50 pence (p) goes to the prize fund, 28p to 'good causes' as set out by Parliament (though some of this is considered by some to be a stealth tax levied to support the Big Lottery Fund, a fund constituted to support public spending), 12p to the UK Government as duty and 5p to retailers as commission, while Camelot receives 4.5p to cover operating costs and 0.5p profit. The National Lottery returns a higher percentage of revenue back to society than any other Lottery. Players must be at least 16 years of age to participate in the lottery, either in the drawn lottery games or by purchase of lottery scratch cards. To date, National Lottery games have created over 2,700 UK millionaires.

History

A statute of 1698 provided that in England lotteries were by default illegal unless specifically authorised by statute. An 1934 Act legalised small lotteries, which was further liberalised in 1956 and 1976. There could be no big national lottery until the Government established one, however.
The UK's state-franchised lottery was set up under government licence by the government of John Major in 1993, unlike most state lotteries which are operated by the state The National Lottery is privately operated on a state franchised basis in which the Camelot Group was awarded on May 25th 1994.
The first draw took place on November 19th 1994 with a special hour long show presented by Noel Edmonds and the first numbers drawn were 3 5 14 22 30 44 and the bonus was 10 and seven jackpot winners shared a prize of £5,874,778.
Tickets became available on the Isle of Man on December 2nd 1999 at the request of Tynwald.
The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in 2002 designed to combat falling sales. This resulted in the main game being renamed Lotto and the National Lottery Extra being renamed Lotto Extra. However, the games as a collective are still known as The National Lottery. It is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the United Kingdom.
In November 2009 Camelot replaced its older Lotto draw machines. The new machines are named Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Merlin, reusing names that were used in older machines. At the same time, new machines for the Thunderball game were introduced. The new Lotto machines are the Magnum II model, manufactured by SmartPlay International Inc., and the new Thunderball machines are the SmartPlay Halogen II model..

King's Cross fire

The King's Cross St. Pancras tube station fire was a fatal fire on the London Underground. It broke out at approximately 19:30 (7:30 PM) on 18 November 1987, and killed 31 people.
It took place at King's Cross St. Pancras station, a major interchange on the London Underground. The station consisted of two parts (it has subsequently been expanded), a subsurface station on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan Lines (Note: at the time of the incident, the Hammersmith & City line was considered part of the Metropolitan line) and a deep-level tube station for the Northern, Piccadilly, and Victoria Lines. The fire started in an escalator shaft serving the Piccadilly Line, which was burnt out along with the top level (entrances and ticket hall) of the deep-level tube station.

Emergency services at King's Cross

The intensity of the fire was initially inexplicable and the forensic investigation resulted in the discovery of a new fluid flow phenomenon that was completely unknown to the scientific community at the time. The subsequent public inquiry led to the introduction of new fire safety regulations.

Cause

The escalator on which the fire started had been built just before World War II. The steps and sides of the escalator were partly made of wood, which meant that they burned quickly and easily. Although smoking was banned on the subsurface sections of the London Underground in February 1985 (a consequence of the Oxford Circus fire that happened that year), the fire was most probably caused by a traveller discarding a burning match, which fell down the side of the escalator onto the running track (Fennell 1988, p. 111). The running track had not been cleaned since the escalator was constructed in the 1940s and was covered in grease and fibrous detritus that had built up over the years.
Other possible causes such as arson and an IRA bomb were quickly rejected by police as possible causes of the fire because of the lack of damage to the metal sides of the escalator that would have been present in the event of a bomb, or of significant traces of an accelerant as would be expected in an arson.

How the fire spread

Wooden escalators at Greenford tube station, similar to those that caught fire at King's Cross. Situated on an open-air platform, these are the only wooden escalators still in service on the London Underground.

The lack of visible flames and relatively clean wood smoke produced lulled the emergency services into a false sense of security, especially as the fire brigades had attended more than 400 similar tube fires over the previous three decades. Firemen later described the fire as around the size and intensity of a campfire. Many people in the ticket hall believed that the fire was small and thus not an immediate hazard: indeed, an evacuation route from the tunnels below was arranged through a parallel escalator tunnel to the ticket hall above the burning escalator. Station staff claimed that the station below the fire did not need to be evacuated because of a belief that "fires rarely burn downwards", saying that there was no fire damage below the starting point of the fire. On the other hand, another consideration is ventilation; a fire being above does not mean that smoke and other products of incomplete combustion, including carbon monoxide, will not spread downwards. Alterations to normal ventilation flows are particularly common in underground environments, including tube stations.
The fire started beneath the escalator, spread above it, then flashed over and filled the ticket hall with flames and dense smoke. Investigations later showed that a particular combination of draughts, caused by an eastbound train arriving at the station at the same time that a westbound train was leaving, created a 12 mph wind through the station and up the escalator (known as the piston effect; this helps ventilate the tube), increasing the speed at which the fire spread. This wind was however found to be not enough to account for the flashover or the fire's intense ferocity, which was described as similar to a blowtorch.

Emergency response

The London Fire Brigade initially despatched four fire appliances and a turntable ladder, with units from A24 Soho Fire Station being the first on the scene at 19:42, followed shortly by colleagues from C27 Clerkenwell, A22 Manchester Square and A23 Euston. More than 30 fire crews - over 150 firefighters - were eventually deployed to combat the incident.
A total of 14 ambulances from the London Ambulance Service fleet ferried the injured to local hospitals including University College Hospital.
The fire was officially declared extinguished at 01:46 the following day (19 November), although emergency crews remained at the scene until 18:20.

Victims

In total, 31 people were killed and more than 60 received injuries ranging from severe burns to smoke inhalation. The fatalities were among those unable to escape from the ticket hall before succumbing to the effects of the latter stages of thick smoke and the intense heat.