ash

Austrian fireman claim to have witnessed the world’s first ever robot suicide after a cleaning robot apparently rebelled against the monotony of work, and climbed onto a kitchen hotplate where it was burned to death. Local media reported that the robot had seemingly enough of being forced to clean the house every day, and decided to end it all. Fireman Helmut Kniewasser was one of those called to tackle the blaze at Hinterstoder in Kirchdorf, Austria. He said: “The home-owner had put the small robot on the work surface to clean up some spilled cereal. Once the robot had done its job it was switched off but left on the kitchen sideboard. The 44-year-old house owner together with his wife and son then left the house and were not home when the robot set off. “Somehow it seems to have reactivated itself and made its way along the work surface where it pushed a cooking pot out of the way and basically that was the end of it. It pretty quickly started to melt underneath and then stuck to the kitchen hotplate. It then caught fire. By the time we arrived, it was just a pile of ash. “The entire building had to be evacuated and there was severe smoke damage particularly in the flat where the robot had been in use. I don’t know about the allegations of a robot suicide but the homeowner is insistent that the device was switched off it’s a mystery how it came to be activated and ended up making its way to the hotplate.” It took an hour to clean and make the building safe. But the family at least for the moment is homeless as their apartment is no longer habitable thanks to the smoke damage. The homeowner said: “The company that makes the robots is selling dangerous devices, I intend to sue to get compensation. It has ruined my home as everything is smoke damaged.”