'Fire safety much improved' since city library blaze

Norwich Central Library was gutted by a fire in 1994

Fire safety has been "much improved" since a blaze that devastated a city library 30 years ago.

A suspected electrical fault on 1 August 1994 sent Norwich's Central Library up in flames, destroying heritage documents and more than 100,000 books.

Seven years later the building was replaced by The Forum, which has housed the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library ever since.

Anne Tidd, manager of the library, said fire safety was now "excellent" and a similar blaze today would be contained.

The Forum was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002

Important documents and books are housed in a climate-controlled area

"We've got 600 sprinklers, a disaster recovery plan and 160,000 litres of water on site which would be supplied by two pumps," Ms Tidd said.

"We've also got 600 fire detection devices, and the fire service know our salvage plans, so if they were to come to this building in the event of a fire they would know what to rescue first and why they're important."

Ms Tidd said the library's most important documents and books, including rare first editions, were kept in a climate-controlled area known as the "strong room", which had additional fire safety measures.

"We're in a much better position," she added. "There's so much modern technology that we can use now."

Anne Tidd was inside Norwich Central Library just moments before it went up in flames

At the height of the fire, more than 150 firefighters were on the scene, with smoke seen about 20 miles (about 32km) away.

Ms Tidd worked at the library at the time and said staff returned to the site in the subsequent days to try to salvage what they could.

"We had lots of loyal customers and everyone rallied together," she said.

"People would come up with drinks for us. There was real care in the community.

"Everyone wanted their library back so we were well supported."

Jonathan Wilby, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service's emergency planning and resilience officer, said fire safety had "moved forward" since the blaze.

"The way we tackle fires and the equipment we've got is so much more developed," he said.

"But, more critically, the way that buildings are constructed now, like The Forum, the engineering and protection that has gone into that… will certainly stop a fire from developing that rapidly."