York Minster fire 1984: Fireman Dave Long recalls damage

Dave Long, then 41, was arriving on July 9, 1984, after two decades in the service.

But even that couldn’t mask his horror at seeing the devastation caused by the fire, thought to have been caused by lightening striking the cathedral’s South Transept.

Speaking to The Press 40 years on as a special service is due to be held at the Minster today (Tuesday, July 9) marking the anniversary, Dave recalls the events like they happened yesterday.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” he says. “You’d never think that a building of that size could be devastated in one night.

The devastating fire which ripped through York Minster's South Transept on July 9, 1984 (Image: Supplied)

“I went up the steps to the South Transept underneath the rose window – where the fire actually started – and walked through the doors, and the roof had collapsed. It was on the floor; they were dampening it down then.

“My first reaction was, well I can’t repeat what I thought or what I said – but I realised where I was and I bit my tongue.

“I looked up and was looking up to the skies. It was horrendous.”

Workmen set to work to clear the debris from the gutted South Transept after the 1984 blaze (Image: Supplied)

The now 81-year-old, who retired from the fire service 10 years after the Minster blaze to run Tyburn Guest House with his late wife Eileen, was involved in making the site safe.

Dave was born and bred in York and says it was “shattering” to see the Minster’s roof missing.

“You couldn’t put into words what you thought,” he adds. “You couldn’t voice your opinion about the fire in the Minster.”

York Minster fire, 1984 (Image: Supplied)

He says the Minster’s central tower stopped the fire from spreading and fears the blaze could have ripped through the whole cathedral had this not been the case.

After the fire, Dave explains, the community came together to restore the building to its former glory.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, surveying the devastation in the Minster in the aftermath of the 1984 fire (Image: Supplied)

“People were giving money right, left and centre,” he recalls. “Nearly everybody that was passing.

“It’s an iconic building and everybody was devastated that it had been damaged so badly.”

'It were my day off!'

Dave has two daughters – Deborah Boyes and Mandy Johnson – and four grandchildren – Daniel, Abbey, Annabel and Charlotte – and says his account of the Minster fire is well-known to them, as well as friends.

But, Dave admits, he is regularly teased about the fire happening on his day off.

The aftermath of the blaze 1984 blaze at York Minster (Image: Supplied)

When people ask him where he was on the night he replies: “It were my day off!” which has become something of a standing joke.

The quote is even on the wall of the Knavesmire pub next to where Dave sits and a framed photograph of that is at Inn on the Green in Acomb.

It were my day off!: Dave Long next to his well-known phrase immortalised on the wall of the Knavesmire pub (Image: Supplied)

It’s credited to the wrong date which, Dave says, only adds to the joke.

“It followed me around, me saying: ‘It were my day off.’ What else can you say?” he laughs. “Of course, they’d ridicule me saying: ‘One decent fire in York and it was your day off.’ And I’d say: ‘Yes it was!’”

Read next:

• 1984 York Minster fire - how events unfolded on dramatic night 40 years ago
• The Minster's Burning...York Minster's great fire of 1984 remembered
• The night when fire hit York Minster

Dave describes his time in the fire brigade as the happiest of his life, explaining that the camaraderie among the team was “unbelievable”.

“Any traumatic jobs that you went to, you just went back to the station, you had a cup of tea, you all sat around the table, and you talked about it to relieve the tension,” he says.