An intense fire

At the end of this year there is a National Scout Jamboree at Mystery Creek in Hamilton. One of the requirements of the Jamboree that has been put in place by the health & safety committee is the placement of smoke alarms in every tent. It just so happened that we had a surplus tent at Redwood/Tawa, so I put forward the concept at our recent AGM of doing a controlled burn to show our scouts what can happen. We are lucky in that several of the scouts' fathers are part of the local Fire Service in Tawa, and helped us obtain the required permit from Council.

On Thursday 25th November at 7.00pm we set the tent up at Coronation Park in Tawa and proceeded to set it alight (with the Fire Service on hand). From the time the flames first caught, the tent was reduced to ashes within a couple of minutes - as seen in the photos here. One senior scout leader with 40 years' experience said it was "the most impressive and scary sight that he has seen".

- article and photos supplied by Mark Lester, Tawa Scouts

[Click on pics to enlarge].

	Setting the tent alight.
	1 minute 30 seconds later.
	1 minute 38 seconds later (from start).
	1 minute 48 seconds later.
	1 minute 57 seconds later.
	2 minutes 7 seconds later.