J Sainsbury's superstore in Chichester was burned to a crisp in December 1993. An arsonist set light to the area where crisps were stored. There was a compartment wall between the storage and the sales areas. It was supposed to give two hours' fire resistance. But there was a design error. It achieved only half an hour. Sainsbury lost pound;14.5m. It would have to sell a lot of smoky bacon-flavoured crisps to get that back. Sainsbury complained to its architect that, if the design of the fire break wall had been correct, the sales area would have been saved and trade could have quickly resumed. So, would the architect please pay up?
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