The Notre-Dame fire is a warning of the urgent need to renovate the crumbling Palace of Westminster and protect Britain’s historic architectural treasures, MPs said today.
Parliament’s multi-billion-pound restoration programme is not due to begin until the mid-2020s at the earliest. Fire wardens patrol the grounds 24 hours a day, frequently putting out small fires.
The Palace of Westminster caught fire 40 times between 2008 and 2012 alone. Its maze of shafts, ducts and corridors means any fire, if it took hold, could spread rapidly.
Meg Hillier, Labour MP and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said the devastation in Paris — and previous fires at Windsor Castle and York Minster — were a “tragic reminder of the risks”.
She added: “It is a wake-up call — we cannot keep putting this off. It is just not a safe building … Every day I go in, I think, ‘Could today be the day?’ There is only so long you can not fix the roof on your house. We are way beyond the patching up stage.”
Labour MP Chris Bryant said: “Parts of the Palace are as old as Notre-Dame and we must make sure that every fire precaution is taken as the major work goes ahead.
Notre Dame Cathedral fire: Before and after - In pictures
“God knows we’ve had enough warnings.”
Outgoing Lords chief David Leakey, who stood down as Black Rod last year, said: “Notre-Dame puts more pressure on politicians to do what is necessary to save the building. They have had the wake-up call, the question is how regularly the snooze button can be hit.”
A spokesman for Westminster Abbey said that in a recent exercise two fire engines arrived within five minutes of an alarm, “quickly followed by others from all over London”.
He added: “The Abbey’s Beadles [full-time security staff] are all fully trained in fire procedures and also work very closely with the London Fire Brigade."
