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I don't really care about this story. I don't feel compelled to care as it is not like other warehouse fires, e.g. the Asos one where you wondered about people

I don't really care about this story. I don't feel compelled to care as it is not like other warehouse fires, e.g. the Asos one where you wondered about people and their jobs. When it is just robots and when you know the customers will just place their orders with one of the other click and pick outfits, e.g. Waitrose, Sainsbury's or whatever there isn't that requirement to give a damn. In retail there are thieves who don't care about stealing from big companies like how they might care about stealing from small businesses as there is an assumption everything is insured. I am sure Ocado have insurance and I don't care too much about the shareholders of the insurance companies as I am sure they have their losses 'insured'. File under 'expensive mistake' rather than 'human tragedy'.

Pharmakon 8y ago
There are some holes in your argument. Most glaringly, this fire presents a risk to everyone who has to fight it, and anyone else in the area.
- bpye 8y ago
  If, and I know in this case it wasn't, your no-people warehouse was far from homes and was on fire, wouldn't one option be to just let it burn itself out? No risk fighting that fire...
  - Pharmakon 8y ago
    Then I’d agree, but when you think of how far burning cinders can be carried on the wind, it would have to be very very far away. There would also need to be some legal framework to allow firefighters to say, “No thanks, we’re not risking our lives for your property, and we are 100% sure there isn’t a kid or homeless guy who snuck in for the night.” http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
- Theodores 8y ago
  Not really. It is not like they are heroically going in there to save cabbages and Pot Noodles. "Just think of those poor nectarines...!" doesn't cross my mind. On a scale of 1 to Grenfell it scores zero. Let the venture capitalists money burn... In the UK we do have a huge amount of respect for those in the emergency services but it doesn't have the patriotic edge that Americans have in the post 9/11 world. Our firefighters are down to earth heroes yes, but not Hollywood glamorised patriot heroes. My grand dad was a firefighter so I am naturally inclined to think highly of everyone in the fire service, perhaps more so than most people. Feelings are not strictly rational, my original comment was an observation that the incident lacked the feeling of awful that goes with a Grenfell or empathy that goes with things like the Asos fire where people were having their lives in jeopardy.
mhandley 8y ago
The warehouse was not fully automated: The robots, complete with green flashing lights, are collecting crates of food that sit in stacks beneath the grid and delivering them to chutes, where human workers beneath take the number of items they need to complete an order and then the crates are lifted back by the machines and returned to their spot. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43968495 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43968495
benj111 8y ago
Very long comment for something you don't care about! 2 things that I find interesting are. A. Humans are often seen as the weak link, and cause of accidents. That obviously didn't happen here. B. As the article points out, humans would probably have smelt the smoke, and maybe the fire wouldn't have been so damaging, a human work force has useful soft benefits. So no it isn't a human tragedy, but its a useful case study.

Pharmakon 8y ago

There are some holes in your argument. Most glaringly, this fire presents a risk to everyone who has to fight it, and anyone else in the area.

bpye 8y ago
If, and I know in this case it wasn't, your no-people warehouse was far from homes and was on fire, wouldn't one option be to just let it burn itself out? No risk fighting that fire...
- Pharmakon 8y ago
  Then I’d agree, but when you think of how far burning cinders can be carried on the wind, it would have to be very very far away. There would also need to be some legal framework to allow firefighters to say, “No thanks, we’re not risking our lives for your property, and we are 100% sure there isn’t a kid or homeless guy who snuck in for the night.” http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...
Theodores 8y ago
Not really. It is not like they are heroically going in there to save cabbages and Pot Noodles. "Just think of those poor nectarines...!" doesn't cross my mind. On a scale of 1 to Grenfell it scores zero. Let the venture capitalists money burn... In the UK we do have a huge amount of respect for those in the emergency services but it doesn't have the patriotic edge that Americans have in the post 9/11 world. Our firefighters are down to earth heroes yes, but not Hollywood glamorised patriot heroes. My grand dad was a firefighter so I am naturally inclined to think highly of everyone in the fire service, perhaps more so than most people. Feelings are not strictly rational, my original comment was an observation that the incident lacked the feeling of awful that goes with a Grenfell or empathy that goes with things like the Asos fire where people were having their lives in jeopardy.

mhandley 8y ago

The warehouse was not fully automated: The robots, complete with green flashing lights, are collecting crates of food that sit in stacks beneath the grid and delivering them to chutes, where human workers beneath take the number of items they need to complete an order and then the crates are lifted back by the machines and returned to their spot. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43968495 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43968495

benj111 8y ago

Very long comment for something you don't care about! 2 things that I find interesting are. A. Humans are often seen as the weak link, and cause of accidents. That obviously didn't happen here. B. As the article points out, humans would probably have smelt the smoke, and maybe the fire wouldn't have been so damaging, a human work force has useful soft benefits. So no it isn't a human tragedy, but its a useful case study.