Sealand burns

There is a small old fort of the coast of England (about 7 miles out) built during the war which was occupied after it was disused by the military, to become Sealand. They declared independance, though they aren't really recognised by any international organisation as seperate country.

In the dot com boom someone decided Sealand would make a great off-shore hosting centre, not prone to UK laws etc. and Havenco was set-up. Any links to or from the old fort would have to pass in or out of another country - or maybe via satellite.

This weekend a fire broke out after an electrical fault with a generator. It seems it was a major blaze. The UK Coastguard attended the fire with a "fireboat" and dumped a lot of water on the building after an RF helicoptor winched the only crew member on site (a generator maintenace person) to safety and on to Ipswich hospital. The fireboat spent about 4 hours putting the fireout.

It's likely that ammount of water, on top of the fire damage, may well put Sealand out of action permanently.

As Sealand has declared itself independant, who should pay for all the efforts that went into the exercise? The RLNI (lifeboats) are completely paid for by donations, but the RAF helicopter which winched the maintenance guy to safety is paid for by the British Government (well all the tax payers), maybe a big bill to the self-proclaimed King of Sealand.