Buckingham Palace fire disrupts Golden Jubilee

LONDON -- A fire at Buckingham Palace on Sunday forced hundreds of people to evacuate and marred the high-spirited, four-day celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 50 years on the throne.

The London Fire Brigade said no members of the royal family were in the palace at the time, but the evacuation disrupted preparations for a star-studded pop music concert planned on the palace grounds tonight.

Ozzy Osbourne had just finished rehearsing his 30-minute set when the blaze began, and the British Broadcasting Corp. reported that those evacuated from the area around the palace included Phil Collins, Eric Clapton and Queen guitarist Brian May. It wasn't clear if Osbourne was evacuated.

News reports said it was the first time the palace had been evacuated since World War II.

The fire in a roof loft of the palace's West Terrace was reported at 6:38 p.m. and was brought under control an hour and a half later, said Colin Williamson, a Fire Brigade spokesman.

"We don't know how much damage there has been, but we have been assisting in salvaging valuable artifacts as a precautionary measure," he said.

The palace said in a statement that a fire alarm system had detected the flames in a flat above the East Gallery, a large corridor that connects the palace ballroom to the state rooms.

Spokeswoman Penny Russell-Smith told the BBC it was unclear how the fire started, but police said it was not set intentionally.

Eighteen royals and 12,000 guests attended a classical music concert on the palace grounds Saturday night and excitement was building for today's show, which was expected to be a high point of the long Golden Jubilee weekend.

Most remained on the palace grounds, away from the building, during the fire and rehearsals resumed at around 8:20 p.m., when former Beach Boy Brian Wilson took the stage. The palace said the concert would go ahead as scheduled.

Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox are among the others slated to perform before a crowd of 12,000 people and a live television audience.

"There is an enormous crowd of extremely famous people here sitting on the lawn chatting on their mobile phones," May told the BBC while the fire was burning.

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