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Major Disruption At Nottingham Due To Fire (12/01)

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LowLevel

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The station's IT infrastructure is very hit and miss at the moment and running on contingency servers - consequently failures are a regular problem.
 

kevjs

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The Nottingham Post is reporting that repairs will be completed by next Monday with the lifts to be replaced by the end of the month instead of the years end as was planned before the fire
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/repair-work-completed-nottingham-train-19451277

Nottingham train station will be fully repaired by early September, it has been announced.

Network Rail, which is responsible for carrying out the repairs at the station, said work following January's fire would be complete by September 3.

At the moment, scaffolding and bollards still block parts of the platform, where the main concourse footbridge was mostly affected by the fire.

British Transport Police (BTP) said the fire was being treated as arson and Network Rail said the repair bill was estimated at around £2m .

British Transport Police have still not made any progress in identifying the person responsible for causing the fire and the investigation remains open.

...

A Network Rail spokeswoman said: "Network Rail will complete refurbishment and repair work at Nottingham railway station on Monday, September 3 following a fire in January 2018.

"The fire, which started in a toilet on platform 7 at the station, caused significant damage to the building and the infrastructure contained in the building.

"Work has been ongoing since January with all activity being carried out at night to minimise disruption to station users and keep the station operational.

"The repair work has included a full refurbishment of the toilets, replacement of all the hardware and associated cables in the station’s communication and power room, replacement of the roof on the footbridge and in the concourse along with deep cleaning and decorating.

"The lifts at the station were due for renewal at the end of the year. As two of the lifts were damaged during the fire this work has been brought forward and will continue throughout September."
 

yorksrob

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That's certainly good news.

Most of it was looking in pretty good shape a few weeks ago.
 

maire23

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I was in there last week and there was a strong smell of fresh paint coming from behind the hoardings so I figured that was a good sign.
 

howittpie

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All the hoarding have come down from where you come down from the tram to the main concourse now though the toilets there are still closed.
 

LewFinnis

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I hope the lifts are working by the time I next travel to Nottingham in early October!
 

LOL The Irony

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As has the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-47007334
A woman has been charged with arson over a huge fire that closed Nottingham railway station.

Ten fire crews were needed to bring the fire under control after it broke out at 06:30 GMT on 12 January last year.

Gemma Peat, 34, of Wilford Crescent, Nottingham, was rearrested in Derby on Friday and charged with arson with intent or being reckless to endanger life.

She will appear at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 26 February.

All trains in and out of Nottingham were cancelled on the day after the fire, which started in a set of women's toilets on the new side of the station and caused "significant" damage.

The main entrance to the Grade II-listed station had recently been refurbished in a multi-million pound project, and final repairs are due to finish in April.

No injuries were reported following the fire.
 

AndyPJG

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-49261112

Nottingham railway station fire: Woman admits arson
  • _108231258_gemmapeat-1.jpg
    Image copyrightBRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE
Image captionGemma Peat started the blaze in the women's toilets at Nottingham railway station on 12 January last year
A woman has admitted causing a major fire which caused £5.5m worth of damage to a railway station.

Gemma Peat, 34, started the blaze in the women's toilets at Nottingham station on 12 January 2018.

Nottingham Crown Court previously heard 10 fire crews were needed to bring the fire under control as it ripped through the building.

Peat, of Wilford Crescent East, admitted one count of arson and will be sentenced on 13 August.

She had previously denied arson with intent to endanger life and a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life is endangered, but has now pleaded guilty to arson at a pre-trial hearing.

_108226663_fire.jpg

Image captionTen fire crews were needed to bring the blaze under control
Det Sgt Shanie Erwin said: "This was a long and particularly complex investigation, which was made even more difficult by the fact the CCTV hard drive was very badly damaged in the blaze.

"As a result we spent many months working with specialist forensic teams to recover this essential evidence and present it to the Crown Prosecution Service.

"It has been a long wait for justice for those in Nottingham and I am pleased to see Peat change her plea to guilty today. The damage and disruption that her reckless behaviour has caused to the rail industry and those who use it is simply staggering."

The main entrance to the Grade II-listed station had only recently been refurbished before the fire.

The station had to close and trains, trams and buses across the city were cancelled or disrupted for much of the day.
 

kevjs

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'Flaw' in refurbishment of Nottingham Railway Station contributed to the spread of massive fire [Nottingham Post]
A "flaw" in the refurbishment of Nottingham Railway Station contributed to the spread of last January's massive fire, causing £5.6 million damage, a court heard.

The revelation was made by prosecutor Grace Hale after defendant Gemma Peat pleaded guilty to arson, without lawful excuse, damaged by fire the female toilet at the station belonging to network rail on January 12, 2018.

[...]

Mrs Hale spoke of the 2012 renovation of the building, telling Nottingham Crown Court: "Had the refurbishment works been carried out more assiduously the fire would have been contained within the toilet block within one hour.

"There was a flaw in the refurbishment works. There was a gap in the roof space and the use of polystyrene material. All of those points contributed to the spread of the fire, causing the immense damage."

[...]

The judge asked: "Were Network Rail aware?"

Mrs Hale replied: "They are now. They were made aware of it by the insurance experts who looked into the spread of the fire.

"All of those factors played a part in helping myself and those instructing consider the offer of the plea."

[...]

"The defendant is willing to accept her culpability with a plea to arson which, I say, is also a serious offence in the circumstances," she explained.

The judge had asked about the cost of the damage to the station and Mrs Hale said it was £5.6 million.

She is trying to find out what the rebuilding cost would have been if the fire had been contained to the toilet block.
 

John Webb

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Quite right.

As an aside, how on Earth do you start a fire in a public toilet?!
It may have spread up the partition(s) separating the toilet cubicles. Vertical surfaces encourage rapid vertical flame spread, particularly if they can burn themselves. Clearly the flames reached the ceiling and discovered the renovation flaw mentioned in post #372 above. Had the ceiling had a proper 1 hour fire resistance, as I suspect it ought to have had, I doubt very much if the fire would have spread outside the Ladies.
 

londonmidland

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The P.A system still isn't working properly following the fire though I have a feeling Stagecoach are leaving the repairs for Abellio to deal with, presumably due to the cost.
 

duffield

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I hope that NR can recover a large percentage of their costs from the relevant contractors if they were responsible for the lack of fire resistance in the ceiling.
 

maire23

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The P.A system still isn't working properly following the fire though I have a feeling Stagecoach are leaving the repairs for Abellio to deal with, presumably due to the cost.
Really?
I get the train to and from Nottingham 5 days per week and I’ve not noticed a problem?
 

londonmidland

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Really?
I get the train to and from Nottingham 5 days per week and I’ve not noticed a problem?

Platform 7 has no P.A coverage at all (nothing coming out the speakers) and the overall volume is significantly quieter than before, pre-fire.
 

Crossover

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-49330611

A woman has been jailed for more than two years for starting a fire that caused £5.6m of damage to a railway station.

Gemma Peat, 34, started the blaze in the women's toilets at Nottingham station on 12 January 2018.

Nottingham Crown Court heard more than 100 firefighters were needed to bring the blaze under control as it ripped through the building.

Peat, from Nottingham, admitted one count of arson at a pre-trial hearing.

She was sentenced to 25 months in prison. She will serve half of that sentence before being released on licence.
 

kevjs

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Notts TV Twitter is showing the CCTV footage captured in the station as the fire started
https://twitter.com/Notts_TV/status/1161270145974788102

Nottingham Post has some additional details
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/train-station-arsonist-jailed-25-3202328

It took 100 firefighters 27 hours to bring under control after a drunk Peat went to the toilets to use heroin and crack cocaine.

Both drugs would have needed to be heated using a naked flame.

[...]

He said the fire must have smoldered in a flammable and plastic sanitary towel bin. There were no smoke detectors, sprinkler system or extinguishers near the toilet.
 
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thenorthern

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Building work played a part in the fire and there were no smoke alarms in the toilets which is an obvious major safety failure.

The person convicted however is rightfully in jail as she shouldn't have been using smoking materials in a public building let alone illegal drugs also she shouldn't have placed smouldering materials in a trash can. It was not intentional but reckless.
 
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