Sure, the Republicans lost a House seat by ejecting a moderate and backing a fire-breather.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

Last Saturday the fire reached La Crescenta and our hillsides backing the community were alight in many, many places - in some areas flames reached 100 feet.

BBC: JAN FOX, LA CRESCENTA, CALIFORNIA, WEDNESDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER

Until then, they were fairly boring things, with most people understanding how they worked only because their neighborhood streetlights went on when they sensed darkness, smoke detectors sounded alarms and fire trucks beeped because motion sensors understood when they were backing up.

FORBES: How Sensor Networks Add to Context

Nevertheless, boss Darren Ferguson has handed Lewis his backing and Zakuani says the whole Posh squad are fully behind their under-fire shot-stopper.

BBC: Zakuani urging Lewis fan support

To discover the truth, the investigators, with the backing of the prosecution, decided to conduct an elaborate experiment and re-create the fire scene.

NEWYORKER: Trial by Fire

With the backing of the local political authorities, Mr McGuirk and his team resolved to evangelise, providing basic fire-safety advice, checking 350, 000 homes and fitting 700, 000 smoke alarms.

ECONOMIST: A Liverpool fireman demonstrates how it can be done