[179173] in North American Network Operators' Group
Fwd: Holborn fire is still burning under the pavement - BBC News
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Colin Johnston)
Thu Apr 2 08:59:12 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Colin Johnston <colinj@gt86car.org.uk>
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2015 09:50:34 +0100
To: "<nanog@nanog.org>" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
Will take a lot of water to clear this up if gone into main tunnels :(
Colin
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>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32157618 =
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32157618>
>>=20
>> Holborn fire is still burning under the pavement
>>=20
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>> Local road closures are in place but Holborn Tube station is open
>> A road in central London remains closed as an electrical fire =
continues to burn under the pavement.
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>> Some 5,000 people were evacuated from nearby buildings after smoke =
was seen coming out of an inspection cover on Kingsway, in Holborn, on =
Wednesday.
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>> London Fire Brigade (LFB) said the fire has been contained but has =
been "technically difficult" to tackle.
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>> More than 20 firefighters and officers are still at the scene and =
local road closures are in place.
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>> LFB Assistant Commissioner Peter Cowup said: "This has been a =
technically difficult incident to tackle.
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>> "The reason that the fire is still burning is because the service =
tunnel is hard to reach.
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>> "Although firefighters have been applying water through access points =
throughout the night, the complexity of the tunnel layout means that it =
will be some time until the fire is fully extinguished."
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>> He added LFB, the Met Police and utility companies were making steady =
progress to try and resolve the situation.
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>> 'Not an overnight job'
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>> Speaking to BBC London 94.9 =
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_london>, Insp Neil Johnson, from =
the Met Police, said: "The fire is still live in the subway. The problem =
at the moment is there is a gas pipe underneath and we are all in =
agreement that it is ok and if we can keep it contained it will be fine.
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>> "All we need to do is keep people out of the area and let the fire =
brigade and utilities do their job."
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>> The view from the London Eye on Thursday night highlighted the area =
affected by the power cut
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>> Firefighters were called to the fire at about 12:30 BST on Wednesday
>> "I imagine this road will be closed a long time after this is =
finished because of damage the heat does to the road," Mr Johnson said.
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>> "It will have to remain closed until a structural engineer examines =
it properly and either he or she says what work has to be done and that =
work is completed - this is not an overnight job."
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>> On Thursday onlookers reported struggling to breathe and "chaos" in =
and around Holborn. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
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>> UK Power Networks said the number of customers currently affected by =
the power cuts stood at about 1,000 and they had restored power to =
2,000.
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>> Apologising to customers Matt Rudling, from UK Power Networks, said: =
"The gas is still burning under there and until we can gain access to =
that particular area we won't understand what's caused it and what we =
can do."
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>> Smoke was seen coming out of an inspection cover on Kingsway on =
Wednesday
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>> "We want to try and restore [power to] all those remaining customers =
by the end of day today."
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>> He apologised for the disruption and added that emergency generators =
were being used to supply power to the area.
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>> UK Power Networks' engineers are also trying and connect some of the =
damaged cables to unaffected ones.
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>> Kingsway is closed between Holborn and Aldwych, the Strand Underpass, =
Waterloo Bridge northbound and Southampton Row southbound between Vernon =
Place and High Holborn, which is causing delays.
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>> Holborn station is open, however nine bus routes are being diverted =
<http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1slhjq1>.
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