A FRENCH student, studying in Brighton, was quoted in The Argus (April 17) as saying that Notre Dame burning down was like Big Ben burning down for us, and that it was sad and tragic because it was his nation’s heritage.

But what if it had been a fire at an historic Sussex building, Chichester Cathedral for example?

Would our fire and rescue services be well enough equipped to deal with blazes of that magnitude, because there were reports in the press suggesting that the Paris firefighters lacked sufficient aerial ladder platforms to douse the fire from above, with some photos appearing to show only one such appliance in action?

How many, then, of these essential fire appliances are available in Sussex?

Well, from what I can make out, there is one based in Horsham, and others in Worthing, Hastings and Brighton, the nearest of which to a fire at the cathedral would be Worthing, 20 miles away and Horsham 30 miles.

The fire would probably be out of control by the time ladder platforms arrived from the latter two stations, Eastbourne being more than 53 miles away and Hastings 65 miles.

West Sussex could, in the case of Chichester Cathedral being on fire, call upon assistance from Hampshire but that county’s fire and rescue service has only got two, the nearest to Chichester being Southsea, 20 miles away.

So it does not look to me as though Sussex is any more prepared for a major fire in one of its historical buildings than Paris was, and neither is any other county in the UK, something that is hardly surprising considering that our fire services have suffered 30 per cent cuts to their finances since 2010, reductions which have resulted in 12,000 fire fighters losing their jobs and their fire engines being disposed of.

There are famous, historical buildings all over Sussex.

Should any of them be placed at the risk of being totally destroyed because of badly resourced fire and rescue services?

I, for one, don’t think so.

Eric Waters Lancing