On the evening of 30 November 1936, Buckland was walking his dog near the palace, with his daughter Crystal, named after the palace, when they noticed a red glow within. Inside, he found two of his employees fighting a small office fire that had started after an explosion in the women's cloakroom. Realising that it was a serious fire, they called the Penge fire brigade. Even though 89 fire engines and over 400 firemen arrived, they were unable to extinguish it. Within hours, the Palace was destroyed: the glow was visible across eight counties. The fire spread quickly in the high winds that night, in part because of the dry old timber flooring, and the huge quantity of flammable materials in the building. Buckland said, "In a few hours we have seen the end of the Crystal Palace. Yet it will live in the memories not only of Englishmen, but the whole world". 100,000 people came to Sydenham Hill to watch the blaze, among them Winston Churchill, who said, "This is the end of an age".