While working as a district reporter with the Bristol Evening Post I received a call from the News Desk saying that a house was on fire just off the A370 Bristol to Weston-super-Mare Road. I abandoned my lunch, leapt into my Mini and could see the smoke rising somewhere ahead as I sped out of the village. The Fire Brigade from nearby Yatton had already arrived and were busy tackling a substantial blaze in the roof. Farm hands were moving animals and machinery out of adjoining buildings and a woman, whom I took to be the farmer’s wife, was simply standing and watching the spectacle, tears pouring down her face. In the midst of this frenzied activity I spotted several young men, not in uniform, who were busy running around checking hose connections and making themselves generally useful. That’s a bit odd, I thought but then took no further notice of them as I endeavoured to get enough information for my copy without getting in the way or hindering the fire-fighting operation. With just a few minutes to spare before the final deadline of the day, I raced to a nearby phone box and put over my piece but when I turned to come out I was stopped dead in my tracks by the most bizarre sight. There were those four men, walking towards me pushing a miniature fire engine. “Look lads just tell me what’s going on,” I asked. “You won’t believe this,” one of them replied. “We are Birmingham firemen on a sponsored fire appliance push to Weston-super-Mare in aid of our benevolent fund.” “Yes,” broke in another. “We were the first on the scene of this blaze and all we had was a toy fire engine and a two foot ladder.” I went straight back into the phone box and called up a photographer. There are indeed times when fact is funnier than fiction and this was definitely one of them.