Major fire

[Julian Field]

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> On 30/10/05, Denis Croombs <denis at croombs.org> wrote:
>> Good luck, the BBC report does not look good !
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4390048.stm
>
> It certainly doesn't:
>
> "No-one was hurt but the building, which housed valuable equipment for
> research, was gutted."
>
> I assume they're referring to Julian's chair? :)

Fortunately my office was not in that building, but in the adjoining one.
So the insurance claim is saved the cost of my chair :-)
However, our entire silicon fabrication plant has gone. And those things
don't some cheap, as anyone in the business will tell you.
We have also lost most of a large office/lab block. And we need to house
all the staff and researchers in that building somewhere. We are currently
discussing with IBM over an offer of several hundred laptops they may be
able to give/lend us.

The main step at the moment is for us systems staff to get into the
building. Once we are in, we can start getting infrastructure services
back on-line. Once that is done the dept can start operating again. At
which point we have to house several hundred people in space we haven't
got. For several years while new buildings are built.

We are in this for the long run. This isn't going to be some 3-month
fixable problem. It's going to take probably 3 years for all the space to
come back on-stream. Building a new fab plant is no quick job either...

Ho hum.
Onwards and upwards!
Jules.

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