On Oct. 5, 1954, fire swept the top floor of the Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office, forcing the evacuation of thousands of workers and a quantity of mail from one of the largest postal facilities in London.
``The call went out to Clerkenwell fire station, conveniently situated immediately opposite the buildings, and firemen were on the scene within two minutes'' but it later ``emerged that over twenty minutes had elapsed between the discovery of the fire and making the emergency call,'' according to the British Postal Museum & Archive website.
The Postmaster General was questioned about the incident in Parliament. It was determined the post office firefighting squad attempted to extinguish the blaze before calling for outside assistance.
