Fire! Fire! Fire!

So, tell me. Just how does a structure built on steel supports and surrounded by water become such a fire risk that it gets into a state that it cannot be controlled by a large number of fire-fighting machines?

"All you can see is thick, thick black smoke and loads of red flame," an eyewitness told BBC Radio Bristol. "The whole of the Grand Pier, the top of it, is collapsing. It's just really, really sad." Fire officials said it was too early to say what caused the blaze. An investigation will begin once the fire is out. Fire detection - at a very early stage - and devices such as sprinklers are not rocket science. 

One would like to think that any installation designed to attract large numbers of people would have fire prevention as a more than prime thought.

The pier was built in 1903 to attract visitors to the town centre. The quarter-mile long structure has housed a music hall, theatre and a go-kart track. It reopened in April after an extensive refurbishment. Seems the refurbishment took little account of fire risk then. 

Another British engineering and project design triumph I suppose.

Bit too far away from his holiday site to blame the 'Brown Effect' I suppose.