The UK’s leading church insurer Ecclesiastical will be hosting a special fire training session for delegates from cathedrals and greater churches from the East of England.
The session will be held on 30 May 2019 and seeks to help delegates reduce the risk of fire at these iconic buildings.
The one-day fire safety course at Peterborough Cathedral will be run by Ecclesiastical’s church risk specialists Claire Attenborough and Kevin Thomas, and feature talks from Steve Emery, Oxford University’s fire officer, and Stewart Kidd, chartered security professional and heritage fire consultant.
Claire said: “Helping our customers reduce their fire and security risk is a fundamental part of our business. It is particularly important when you are insuring buildings that are part of the nation’s history. As we saw at Notre Dame a major fire at a cathedral or greater church would be a huge loss, so anything we can do to help protect these buildings is very important.”
The specialist insurer held a session at Gloucester Cathedral just days before fire ripped through Notre Dame in Paris. The session at Peterborough Cathedral is the last of four sessions held around the country.
Following the blaze at Notre Dame, Ecclesiastical’s group chief executive Mark Hews offered support to the French Authorities.
Mark said: “It was absolutely heart-breaking to see such a beautiful, spiritually and historically significant cathedral engulfed in flames. Our thoughts are with the people of France as they come to terms with the damage to such an iconic building.
“As a long established specialist insurer of churches and listed heritage, we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the restoration of these very special and complex buildings. We stand ready to join others in providing as much help as we reasonably can to support the restoration.”