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At eight o'clock on the evening of December 7 2002, a fire started above a nightclub in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, part of the city's World Heritage Site. It quickly took hold, lighting up the sky for miles around and blanketing the city with acrid smoke. Fortunately, it claimed no lives, but nonetheless destroyed many buildings, including part of the Informatics department of the University of Edinburgh and a venue for the Edinburgh Fringe.
19 fire crews in total attended the blaze when it was it its height, the majority from Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade. It took over a day to bring the fire completely under control, and is the largest incident of its kind in living memory in Edinburgh.
The fire closed two main transport arteries, the Cowgate and South Bridge, in addition to several other roads, leaving Edinburgh's transport system struggling to cope in the days that followed.
The Informatics department at Edinburgh University pioneered the study of Artificial Intelligence in the 1950s and had one of the most comprehensive archival librariesAlternative meanings: Library (computer science), Library (biology In its traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can refer to an individual's private collection, but more often, it is a large collection that is funded and maintained by in its field. It is thought that although little research data was lost in the fire due to offsite backupsBackup in computer engineering refers to the copying of data for the purpose of having a second copy of an original source, in case of damage to the original data source. The "data" in question may be either data as such, or stored program code, both of w, the loss of the library represents a much greater loss than the building itself.
A major venue for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Gilded Balloon, was also gutted by the fire, leaving plans for 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U's festival relying on alternative premises.
The First Minister of ScotlandThe First Minister Priomh Mhinistear in Scots Gaelic) is the leader of Scotland's national home rule government, the Scottish Executive, which was established in 1999 along with the reconstituted Scottish Parliament. The Executive is presided over by the has appealed to the UNESCO World Heritage Fund for money to assist in the redevelopment of the site.
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Edinburgh Historic fires