A CRACK in a fire flue was the most likely cause of the Allerton Castle inferno, the Evening Press can exclusively reveal.

Fire chiefs said millions of pounds of damage at the historic North Yorkshire home might have been prevented if safety advice had been followed and a flue liner had been fitted in a chimney.

The hard-hitting report into the fire also revealed:

No evidence of a "systematic property risk assessment" at the Grade I Listed stately home, near Knaresborough, which would have identified "risks and hazards".

Widely available fire prevention and limitation measures were ignored, including no early warning fire alarm system, no automatic sprinklers - which fire chiefs say would probably have saved the roof and building - and no separations in the attic, where the flames started and quickly spread

Emergency service access did not allow fire engines and aerial ladders to be easily used

A fire crew who attended a report of a chimney blaze just three hours before the main call out at Allerton Castle may have missed a "smouldering fire" in the attic, despite a thorough investigation with infra-red equipment.

York area fire manager Steve Cluderay said the report did not lay any blame at the door of castle owner, US business tycoon, Dr Gerald Rolph, who had discussed the findings with blaze investigators.

He said the fire service did all it could in the run-up to the blaze, which cut a trail of destruction through the stately home, gutting most of the roof and the historic dining room and which wrecked a third of the castle, after being tackled by more than 100 firefighters.

The results of the heavily-delayed report into January's dramatic fire come after a lengthy investigation by the fire service.

Investigators said the fire started in the attic at a point where a chimney joined a roof timber frame, and the most probable cause was a crack in the flue, which allowed hot gasses to escape from the chimney and slowly heat roof timbers. This could have happened over a short space of time or over a number of years.

The report said a fire may have been dormant in the attic when crews arrived for the first call out late on January 21 and found "no visible signs of fire" after 50 minutes checking for hot spots.

Officials accept the two callouts might be linked, although they said crews did all they could in an old, complicated chimney containing ledges and off-shoots.

The report also said the fire may have started after the first crew left the building, or that the inferno could have started at any time and the heating of timber frames was a long-term problem.

"Any of these three scenarios are likely to have begun the chain of events that led to the fire in the roof," the report concludes.

:: Owner calls for more fire inspections

GERALD Rolph today called for fire service improvements to help prevent another stately home being damaged by fire in future.

The owner of Allerton Castle said three problems had helped lead to the blaze at the property.

He claimed that firefighters had for many years carried out an annual fire drill at Allerton, helping to identify ways of preventing and tackling fires, but in the last two or three years these had not taken place, possibly because of cutbacks.

He claimed that firefighters had not crawled up into the attic during the first callout to evaluate the situation, possibly because of health and safety considerations, but might have discovered a problem if they had.

He also said that while several crews used to come out to Allerton during the smallest of fires, only one crew of part-timers from Knaresborough had come on this occasion.

But Steve Cluderay said no changes had been made because of either cutbacks or health and safety considerations.

However, it was probably the case that, while fire safety visits were only made to stately homes 20 years ago, the service now made them to ordinary homes across the county, and this might result in fewer visits to places like Allerton.

He said firefighters had not crawled into the attic because there had been no indications that the chimney intersected with the roof space.

Updated: 10:00 Friday, August 05, 2005