“Fire!”
Every culture has something that they seem obsessed about, and for the Brits, it seems to be fire. Or rather, preventing fire. Of course, given history and the Great Fire of London back in September 1666, they have a reason to worry - but are they carrying it to extremes?
Everywhere you go, you see large fire-doors, clearly marked as “Fire doors” in case you would happen to miss such an obvious fact. Fire extinguishers, fire hoses, fire exits, you name it, London’s got it.
There’s also the habit of the irregular fire drills. I’m not saying that this is bad - except that they manage to pick the most awkward times to do the drills. A friend once had cycled to college in the pouring rain, had changed into fresh, dry clothes he’d brought with him, and had been downstairs when the fire-alarm went off. And here he was, out in the rain again, getting drenched - in the dry clothes which he’d been looking forward to wearing when he got to college, out of the rain. 
The college also has fire-hoses located strategically all over the building - the only problem is, almost ALL of these hoses which I’ve seen over the past few days have had an “Out of Order - Do not use” sign posted on them!
