Report by NICK SMITH

FIREFIGHTING seems simple once you have the right equipment - charge in, unleash a ferocious stream of water and put out the flames.

But there's a lot more to it than that, as fire crews proved during a flashover demonstration at their Winsford HQ.

They have been running the demonstration for the last three years to show how to approach a fire.

All fires are different and must be treated with individual respect - it's hard to have anything else for something which is steaming in at more than 1000 degrees.

"The fire is alive, it has a brain," said training officer John Noden. "It's not just some inanimate object that goes wild, it knows what it's doing."

For the demo, three pieces of chipboard - one on the ceiling, two suspended on either facing wall - are placed at the end of a metal hut and set alight. John and I entered the hut at the opposite end and went straight into a wall of heat.

The flashover gets its name from the flames which run above your head, creating a moving ceiling of fire.

The message is simple - stay down and, if it doesn't sound ridiculous in temperatures approaching 1000 degrees, stay cool! It was tough, and I was only watching!

Before going in, I was advised to wear an extra layer of clothing to fend off burns, yet I was entering a human oven, cooking at 10 times the temperature at which water boils. Either way, I was going to fry.

After about two minutes, I was out of there, scrambling backwards through the hut door. It's frightening how much smoke and heat can be generated in such a short space of time.

But in the real world, it's not like this for firefighters - they have to face living rooms full of furniture, and it does get hotter than this.

The flashover courses are there to make the firefighters more tactically aware. Like a lion tamer or a boxer, it's suicidal to rush in without weighing up your opponent.

As John pointed out, hand and eye co-ordination is vital.

"If you go flying in and throw a lot of water on, you're taking a chance because you don't know what's above your head," he said.

"That's why if you have any visibility you must keep it. Then you know what you're up against."

The most important thing is staying cool and calm - something firefighters demonstrate in their jobs every day.

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