The National Motorcycle Museum (UK) was severely damaged by a fire in 2003. West Midlands Fire Service investigators concluded that a cigarette thrown away in a designated smoking area was responsible for igniting a pile of cardboard boxes containing old air-conditioning filters.
The fire spread rapidly inside the museum’s dropped ceilings, which lacked a sprinkler system. Smoke detection and fire alarm equipment alerted the fire service within minutes of the blaze starting but the fire had already taken a strong hold by the time services arrived.
Staff and people attending a conference helped to save more than 300 historic motorcycles but many of the museum’s rarest and irreplaceable exhibits were destroyed with the loss of 380 motorcycles. The cost of the fire was estimated at over £14 million.
