Staff at Google's London lair have been evacuated after fire broke out. Four fire engines were called to the blaze. Reports of staff fleeing the blaze on Segways at high speed (8mph) could not be confirmed.

The conflagration caused much excitement at the Daily Stenograph newspaper, which is sited opposite Google's Victoria HQ. Stenographers were able to take a break from retweeting each other's Twitter posts and, for the first time, engaged in original research... by looking out of the window.

Unfortunately, judging by the picture, it doesn't appear that 'graphers are yet empowered to open the window in question - but there's probably a good reason for that.

A Google public relations operative told the newspaper that there was a barbecue on the roof. A likely cover story. But what could it really be?

Explanations reverberating around the internet (because we put them there) include the ritual sacrifice of a Gmail support engineer who accidentally took a customer phone call (you have to make an example), the premature ignition of a Burning Man burning man, or a teething mishap in Google's space program.

Is it one of these, or something else? You tell us. ®

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