IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mill Gardens, TRING, HP23 5ES

The Fire Brigade is responsible for rescuing people, often in life threatening situation, and this involves removing people from damaged cars after a motering incident. One of their demonstrations showed how they could remove the side of a car to give easy access to the interior. The first stage is to lay out the tools they need for easy access - including a motor which powers their cutting equipment. The men also don appropriate clothing. Next Image

The metal tower bottom right belongs to Tring's fire station and is a replacement for the one seen in Gerald's 2009 photo Image] A full moon is seen hanging in the sky above it. For a zoomed view of the celestial object, see Image]

This rather threatening looking sky was glowering over Tring. The tower which can be seen in silhouette belongs to Image

First chocks are placed round the car to prevent it moving while they are working. Then they cover the windows with a film and break them - which minimizes the amount of broken glass, which might otherwise fall on any injured occupant. The next stage, shown here, is to use a power tool to get behind the edge of the door and force it open. Next Image

Once the rear door is open power tools are used to force the rear door off the central pillar. Notes that while one fireman is working the tool inside the door another is holding the door ready to catch it once it becomes free, while another keeps the power cables out of the way. Image

Having removed the rear door the rescue team repeat the process with the driver's door. Next Image

Having removed the front and back doors of the car the next stage is to use a powerful cutting tool to remove the central pillar. In this picture you can clearly see where the hinges that supported the back door were. Next Image

At the end of the demonstration the fireman who had given a commentary to the open day audience shows how it is now very easy to access the interior of the car, where in a real incident there may be injured people . He also promised a repeat show later in the day, when the other side of the car would be removed. Return to start of demo Image

Chip pan fires - caused by leaving the pan on the heat until the fat starts to give off inflammable vapour - are quite common. At their open day the Tring Fire Brigade demonstrated why you should not try and put the fire out with water but rather smother it with a fire blanket. This shows the pan on fire on the top of a gas ring. Image shows what you don't want to happen.

As part of their open day the Tring Fire Brigade dramatically demonstrated how not to put out a chip pan fire. When the pan was nicely alight Image a fireman took a very long pole with a very small cup (perhaps eggcup size) and, standing at a safe distance, tipped a little water into the pan. The result was this sudden wall of flame. Imagine how big the flames would have been if he had thrown a whole jug of water onto the pan. If this happened in a kitchen the whole room would have been turned into a raging inferno. He then showed how the fire could be safely put out using a fire blanket.