paranoia

[angledge]

The Brits are paranoid about fire. Every single room has a fire detector, & nearly every door in every academic building is a fire door. Every electric plug has an on/off switch, & there's lots of advertising (TV & magazines) reminding people that's it not enough to turn off an electrical appliance, but you should switch off the plug as well. Security in my dorm comes around to each kitchen around 11.00 pm to make sure that all cookers (oven/stovetop) are off & their switches are turned off. Bathrooms don't have regular electrical plugs, only modified ones that I assume are super-short-proofed.

DESPITE THIS, my department's building burned down in 1990. The Informatics department burned down last year. Fires seem all too common. I'm guessing that this is because so many of the buildings here are really old & have electrical systems that are retrofits.

Comments

[deinemuse.livejournal.com]

Isn't electrical horrible over there though? Don't blame them for being safe, yet surprised how it burnt down anyways.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Isn't electrical horrible over there though?

Horrible? Well, no, it works basically like ours. The major difference is that our system is 110 volts/60 hertz & here it is 240 volts/50 hertz. So you have to get a voltage converter, preferably one that will also modify the frequency. That's a tad inconvenient.

[deinemuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we blew up a clock radio, crimping iron, and 2 blow dryers which actually caught on fire when we were in London for a month many years back. The place always thought we were smoking because we kept blowing stuff up.

Oh Anna...

[fizrep.livejournal.com]

You do that kind of stuff all the time, on purpose!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

From this I conclude that the reason for elaborate fire safety precautions is: Americans. Very good.