Apple's main London store in Regent Street was evacuated today after a fire broke out.
The cause of the fire was not revealed, but speculation is rife that it may have been caused due to overheating iPods, which Japan has recently criticised Apple for.
With almost coincidental timing the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has given the fruity company until tomorrow to explain itself over the overheating problem, which has caused burns to users in some cases. The issues were not isolated to Japan, however, as numerous reports have been made throughout the world, including several that have resulted in fires.
Another possible reason for the fire is an arson attack by little green androids from outer space, which is likely to be the party line as far as Apple is concerned. These robots also force people to watch porn and steal signal strength, apparently, the naughty buggers.
In the end, however, the most likely cause of the fire is probably the opening of the new Covent Garden store, which is set to dwarf the one in Regent Street, formerly the UK flagship store. The fancy new shop is set to open this Saturday and the Reverend Steve Jobs is rumoured to be attending.
It is possible, though we are not suggesting it is truth, that Jobs himself started the fire in Regent Street in order to ensure all his slaves, I mean minions, I mean customers, show up for the grand opening at Covent Garden. He can't be having anyone lagging behind at Regent Street when there's expensive broken toys to hawk.
Of course, anyone trapped inside the Regent Street store would not have been able to call for the fire brigade, due to woeful reception on their iPhone 4. We hear the fire brigade may have sent an email back: "It's a non issue".
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In addition to the Quicksilver shop, One Hanover St was evacuated, which is a rented office block which Apple Europe Ltd lease as their head office.
At no point was the store evacuated... why on earth would you make something up like this??
We didn't make it up. See the "External links" for our source.
So what is this site then, a news aggregator for made-up stories?
I thought you were journalists, not just people who copy/paste from other sites....
Looks like it's the Inquirer all over again!
err.. no
The regent street store wasn't closed. That's the point, this article has been made up.
My money's still on Apple starting it deliberately.
Let me explain for you, as you were clearly not there at the time. Plenty of us saw what happened, as we work at the location or very near to it.
A fire broke out at the Quicksilver store. If you're not familiar with the area (which you're not), it's on the corner of Regent Street and Hanover Street.
As a precaution (which is completely normal when a fire happens), the building next door was evacuated. This is 1 Hanover St, which is a services office building which a number of firms lease. One of those firms is Apple.
The writer of the original story confused this building with the Apple store.
Rather than do any kind of journalism at all (that would be too much to ask in an age where it's easy just to copy a few bits from another article, and dump a link to the source at the bottom), the author of this work of fiction made no attempt to check with anyone how true the story was.
I hope that helps you figure out where the fire was. At no point did anyone try to say there wasn't a fire, so I'm not sure what you mean but saying "there was definitely a fire". We know that.
And if you honestly believe that this was an act of arson perpetrated by a company to draw attention to another store opening, you're entitled to your own opinion. Just bear in mind that
a) fires kill, and if you're statement was true, you essentially suggesting that the company was content to let people die for this, and
b) the Covent Garden store opening was on a completely different day to this.
And how would a fire at a clothes store help publicise the opening of an electronics store?
Almost identical writing styles, and an attempt at sarcastic wit.
Either that, or this site is completely ripping off the style of the other.
Well, I read a story recently about people at the Chinese factory where Apple makes iPods committing suicide because Steve Jobs forces them to work incredibly long hours, without a break, for low wages, while being flogged with a Firewire cable.
Which is pretty much the same thing?
Sounds like you just described every factory in china
And wasn't apple the only firm to publish their audit of those factories?
Didn't nokia, dell, nintendo and all the other firms that use the same plant keep quiet on the issue?
Yup, looks like only one of those companies had the balls to tell all and sundry what was going on in there. The others were quite happy to let apple take the flack for the people that topped themselves making their products too.
....which you wern't
And seeing as he's already admitted he just copied someone else's site, that's not much to go on