Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverBear
BTW, wannabee: Any story that contains the line
demands more detail! Give us the version that won't get you arrested.  |
The official finding was that the fire was deliberately lit by person's unknown.
It's a bit long winded, but you did ask.
Spoiler:
I moved my design business into the Town Square Centre in a small Southern Highlands town with a population of only 8,000. It was a tranquil setting with a verandah overlooking the square. I shared the office with an advertising agency who boasted of their in-house design team whereas I boasted to my clients of our advertising contacts. This mutual arrangement worked quite well.
Working this peaceful life day in and day out was probably one of the best times of my life.
(note to self; do that again some time)
Then one day I heard a loud racket coming from the shared kitchen in the complex. Upon investigation I was confronted by a Lebanese fellow in the process of creating a hole down to the ground floor.
This bloke had leased the shop below and was going to open a Kebab shop down stairs and was creating access for an exhaust.
The hammering, drilling, bashing and mayhem continued daily for six months or more when one day he announced he was going to open his store the very next day. The exhaust did not have any fireproofing between the floors and my concerns to council resulted in a fire rated cavity enclosure before he was allowed to open for business. Although, he made about three attempts by making a wood surround which the council officer rejected. There was some bad blood between the two before the exhaust was signed off.
When I peered into his new shop to observe the results of six months of disruption and noise I was astonished at the grandeur of the fixtures and fittings.
When I commented that I thought he had over capatilised in the fit-out of the shop he response was "You'd be amazed how you can obtain good quality gear for a good price."
There were frequent visits to the premises by a local motorcycle club's heaviest members, follow up by the constabulary as well. By now most of the locals started to put two and two together. Just days before the new shop opened, Kabab burners were stolen from a similar shop in the next town and a cafe further south had their cake refrigerator and coffee machine stolen.
Within a month of opening it was apparent that this fellow had no idea what he was doing and came close to poisoning customers with green meat.
The rumours were rife. This guy was known for stealing cars and disassembling them to sell off the parts. He also had regulars popping in and out who didn't buy food and were much happier leaving than when they arrived. This wasn't a kabab shop it was a laundry.
The guy had a partner who insisted that the first gut buy him out and I think the money to do it came from the motorcycle gang.
On the night of September 10 my neighbour commented on how he saw the guy from the Kabab shop doing donuts in the car parks and had to run to protect his children from the maniac in the white baseball cap driving a red convertable.
At 2am an September 11 I was awoken by my landlord on the telephone who told me that I had better get down to the office. There had been a fire.
Someone inside the shop had opened the valves on the six LPG portable gas heaters and the bottle of Oxyacetylene. How it was detonated is anyone's guess.
You could see in the previous post's images that the front of the shop was blown out into the square along with the tightly packed chairs and table which promptly caught alight setting the verandah above ablase.
After sun rise the damage became apparent and the all clear to enter my office to assess the damage was given by the fire brigade.
As I stated in the earlier post, everything that had a fan in it was kaput and absolutely everything in the place was black.
A couple of days later two interesting things happened.
Another neighbour, who lived across the road from the office, told me he was awakened by the explosion and ran outside and noticed a guy in a white baseball cap in a red convertible pull up and have a look at the fire and then drive off.
A week later the ex-kabab shop owner was on crutches. He said he had an accident and dropped some glass on his foot. The rumour that had the most credibility was that some one one had cut his toes off with bolt cutters.
The captain of the fire brigade told me that if he'd been just a couple of minutes later the building would have collapsed due to the metal trusses in the ceiling cavity heating up and twisting and constricting.
This was prevented due to the fire rated cavity surround that was insisted upon by council after I directed attention to the hazard.
The first visitor to my office after the fire was the council officer who had signed off on the fire rating. He past me, straight to the exhaust and after examining it he wiped his brow with the back of his hand and said "thank god!"
Six months later I read in the local paper that he had been charged with being in possession of stolen cars. He walked free after stating he had rented the garage and had no idea there were stolen cars in it and he didn't know the name of who he had rented the garage to nor how to contact that person.
It's a real shame that buggers like that can use the law to get around it.
Getting back on topic:
My Mac Mini is always fired up and connected to my surround sound and TV for entertainment. If we're watching something on telly that requires clarification we can switch to HDMI 3 and google it or control the music play list from the ipad in the outdoor entertainment area while sizzling a steak on the Weber.