6:50pm Sunday 5th September 2010
By Chris Hewett
A ball of flames erupted at St Albans Fire Station this afternoon as wide-eyed children and their parents looked on.
The spectacular pyrotechnics were part of a chip-pan fire demonstration at the station's annual open day.
Hundreds of families visited the event, at which children could have a go on the fire hose, help cut through a car, look inside the fire engines and visit a small funfair.
Red Watch commander Paul Farrow said the open day was about educating people about the dangers of fires and the work he and his team carry out every day.
“We work with a lot of the schools in the area as well and we try and get the messages across to children as young as four. It works too – only the other day a child whose school we'd visited alerted his mum to a bin fire who was able to call it in to us.”
Visitors also enjoyed a barbecue, first aid demonstrations and a vintage fire engine displayed on the premises.
Darcy Cook, nine, who helped cut through a car door with special equipment, said the open day showed how brave the firefighters were.
“The open day has been really good and very entertaining. It must be scary cutting people out of cars and they must work really hard. I'm not sure if I could do what they do.”
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