Indeed they did. Though the BBC just reported that it took 23 minutes for the first squad to arrive after smoke was seen coming from the roof. And during last night’s live reporting, things were said that clearly implied there had been no plan in place for any sort of incident of this kind. I say this not to criticise them just to report what was being said. The fact that they did save it is truly remarkable given how fast fire spreads in old dry oak, in a roof structure often referred to colloqially as ‘the forest’ - giving you some idea of how much oak was up there.
The BBC also reported, tonight, that it was within 15-30 minutes of being a completely uncontrolllable total loss. So they saved it - by the skin of everyone’s collective teeth - and huge thanks to them for doing that.
