Saturday, April 12, 2008

Psychic Dick

Yikes! Not only do you read the news here before it gets into the local rags, you can now read it before it actually happens! Here's what I wrote in 'Old Eastcliff's Almanac', my annual gaze into Thanet's crystal balls, last year:

This will be a hot month, and many buildings in Margate will suffer spontaneous combustion.

OK, I was out by a couple of months, that being the prediction for June, but spooky!!!! Not only that, but I was working on a post just a couple of hours before the Dreamland blaze which began thus:

What with another building in Thanet catching light in Ramsgate barely a week after the Tivoli Arcade fire on Margate front, it might seem like we're living in a tinderbox here on the Ile de Thanet. However, we can all sleep soundly in our beds, thanks to the soothing miracle of statistics.

Unfortunately that was interrupted by news of the latest conflagration. Probably not a bad thing, either, as the figures from the Office of National Statistics show that, while the number of fires across the South East as a whole has steadily declined, here in Thanet they've actually gone up slightly. Still, Derek Acorah eat your heart out, eh? I feel a whole new career coming on!

4 comments:

Peter C said...

One of the few things that always sells out at The Winter Gardens is the twice yearly Disco Inferno extravaganza! I wonder if people expect something different?

Anonymous said...

Any chance if Distinct Hatter Council burning down, I know they are made of particular solid lumps of wood, very dense I hear, but we can hope.

Anonymous said...

Surely response times must be declining at Westwood as the Fire Station and ambulance stations are either enclosed by shops or affected by congested roads. Local autourity planners lack credibility if they made did not take in account Westwood.

Ken Gregory said...

Hate to say this, but Kent Fire and rescue did take the possibility of westwood cross into account.

More importantly, lets worry about any plans by them to close Ramsgate and Margate fire Stations, and relocate a reduced number of appliances to Westwood.