Cathedral forced to evacuate after 2,000 candles set off fire alarm

There can be few more traditional ways of beginning the Christmas celebrations than a candlelit carol service.

But there were so many candles burning bright at St Albans Cathedral on Thursday evening that they set off the fire alarm, leading to a mass evacuation of the congregation.

The 1,400-strong congregation had barely reached the third verse of the opening carol, Silent Night, when the combined heat of more than 2,000 candles triggered the cathedral’s fire alarm system.

“It was rather ironic,” said the Very Rev Jo Kelly-Moore, the cathedral’s dean. “There we were singing ‘All is calm, all is bright’, when the alarm started ringing very loudly.”

The church was evacuated before two engines from Hertfordshire Fire Service arrived and the crews were able to give the all-clear.

Just 30 minutes later, the congregation were back in their seats ready to begin the service once again. It was at this point that the dean hit on a bright idea.

“Of course we couldn’t light the candles again so I asked everyone if they minded using a bit of 21st-century technology and get their cell phone torches out.

“The modern day equivalent of a candle is a phone torch and the effect in lighting up the congregation was rather wonderful.”

She added: “We are so grateful to everyone who came for their understanding and to the fire service for their fantastic response.

“It was an even more memorable carol service than we might have expected.”

Among those evacuated was Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans, who had joined her constituents for the evening carol concert. She wrote on Twitter:

This is the first time the cathedral’s carol service, which has long been held by candlelight, has been forced to evacuate.

Engineers are still studying the fire alarm system to work out the reason why it was set off by the candles. One possibility is that the system’s sensors were wrongly calibrated when a new fire alarm system was installed earlier this year, making the smoke detectors too sensitive.

“The important thing is that our system is safe and our evacuation procedures worked very well. People can rest assured the cathedral is safe,” said Ms Kelly-Moore. “What our engineers are trying to work out is how to stop it reacting so sensitively to our beautiful candles.”

St Albans Cathedral is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It stands over the place where Alban, Britain’s first saint, was beheaded after sheltering a priest at his home.

When Roman soldiers came to arrest the priest, Alban put on his clothes and gave himself up in his place. His devotion is said to have so inspired one of the soldiers that he converted to Christianity and refused to execute him.

Later legends have it that on his beheading Alban’s head rolled downhill and a well sprang up at the spot where it stopped. On hearing of the miracle, the judge is said to have ordered a halt to further persecutions of Christians.

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