England - Fire destroys top research centre (University of Southampton)

BBC News ^ | October 30, 2005

[HAL9000]

A massive fire has destroyed a leading computer science research facility at the University of Southampton.

Gas canisters exploded inside the Mountbatten building on Salisbury Road, Highfield, which was engulfed by a 100ft plume of smoke on Sunday morning.

No-one was hurt, but the building, housing valuable equipment for making chips and optic fibres, was destroyed.

A spokesman said some of the world's most advanced research was carried out there and its loss was devastating.

The laboratory, part of the school of Electronics and Computer Science, was completely destroyed, and a nearby office building was damaged.

John Lauwerys, secretary and registrar at the university, said: "Some of the most advanced research work in the country, and indeed the world was carried out in this facility."

He said it would be some time before they could assess how much work has been lost and what the damage would cost the university.

"We probably will have to start from scratch, and it will take a couple of years to rebuild the facility," he added.

People living in the area were warned of potentially harmful fumes and told to stay inside and keep windows and doors shut. Flats above a nearby building were evacuated.

It took more than 100 firefighters nearly ten hours to bring the fire under control.

Resident Sarah May, who lives near the campus, said her family was woken up by the a loud bang.

"There was a huge explosion, and literally seconds later there were police sirens everywhere.

"We looked outside and the sky was black. It seems to be lessening now, it's more of a grey colour, but the smoke is unbelievable."

Francis Chee, a postgraduate student at the university, was at the scene of the fire.

He said: "There are a lot of liquid nitrogen tanks outside the building and they use liquid nitrogen heavily there.

"I did hear several explosions sounding like gas canisters going off."

Police forensics officers and fire investigators have started to look for the cause of the fire which, at this stage, is not thought to be suspicious.

[Americanwolf]

WOW

[satchmodog9]

Probably the Bush\Cheney cabal squelching more scientific advances that could save humanity.

[Jonah Johansen]

I never understand why buildings which contain such valuable items are so poorly protected against fire. Museums with irreplaceable items without any serious thought put into the possibility of fire.
I think when you tally up this loss, it will be greater than the cost would have bee to of station a dozen firefighters on the premises 24/7.
Also, aren't critical computers located in special rooms with fire suppression systems, which unlike water from sprinklers, will not damage them?

[Americanwolf]

I know aside from sprinkler system doing damage.. even the halon fire suppression systems.. can damage electrical components... they would use them in critical spaces on ships in the navy but they had to send in clean up crews immediately before the chemicals started corroding electrical components.

[ApplegateRanch]

"There was a huge explosion, and literally seconds later there were police sirens everywhere.

Since liquid nitorgen is non-flammable, non-explosive, I wonder who what the huge initial explosion was.

[calrighty]

PETA?

[Wacka]

But heating the liquid N containers in a fire would cause them to explode.

[PAR35]

Since liquid nitorgen is non-flammable, non-explosive, I wonder who what the huge initial explosion was.

If you put enough heat to a tank of liquid nitrogen, you should get a pretty big bang. So if you had a fire first, perhaps no one would notice before the tanks ruptured, but that still wouldn't explain what happened.