"It may take 7-14 days to put out a fire".

A few years ago, I worked in an office in north London. One day, I happened to look out of my window and noticed a small plume of smoke curling from the litter bin in the smokers’ courtyard. A small fire had developed which looked as though it could easily spread to nearby bushes.

Feeling that calling the fire brigade would be somewhat over-zealous, I rang the Facilities Management department. They asked me a series of questions about the nature of my request and then suggested calling the fire brigade. I explained that it wasn’t really necessary and that a member of Facilities could quite easily put it out. They informed me that in order to proceed with that course of action, I would need to raise an online work request. Before abruptly hanging up, they assured me that an engineer would be able to resolve the problem within 7 -14 days.

I put it out with a glass of water.

"Chris"

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