Picture this... An old decaying fire station, once known as Dockhead or better known as Blackwall fire station in the hit TV drama London's Burning.

It is mid - morning, a woman, about 5ft 4, in her early thirties, her name is Miss Blue she is talking to a class of year 7's in a yard looking at an old building, which closely resembles a fire station.

Miss Blue: "Sorry children, we won't have to wait out here for much longer..."

A small girl called Sammy glanced over to her teacher in disbelief. Sammy may be small, but quiet no way! She spoke her mind alright.

Sammy: "Missss."

Miss Blue: "yes Samantha..."

Sammy: "My name is SAMMY!"

Miss Blue: "Yes ok, ok Sammy what do you want to ask me?"

Sammy: "I though you said that we were going to go on an exciting trip?"

Miss Blue: "We are, we just have to wait for the man who owns the keys."

Sammy, still not satisfied.

Sammy: "Why have we come to an old fire station anyway?"

Miss Blue: "It's not just a normal old fire station, this used to be the set for a TV programme called London's Burning. It was all about a group of fire fighters who fought fires and saved lives..."

Miss Blue carried on.

All the children soon went quiet and stopped talking among their friends and listened as their teacher explained about the programme.

Sammy got interested, so did her friends and they began asking questions.

"How many firemen where there?" said a tall boy called Ben awating his teacher to answer his question.

"Usually 9 main firefighters, they weren't all men, there was women too... Josie, Kate, Sally, Carole..." Miss Blue carried on.

"So what were they all like?" said Catrina, Sammy best friend

"Well... I couldn't tell you about all of them or I would be speaking all day" Said Miss Blue.

"Tell us about some of them then, please!" answered Catrina.

"Alright, I'll begin..." Said Miss Blue in a kind of story telling voice. "There was a man called Geoffrey Pearce, who they called Poison. He was very nosey and always knew the gossip and got into quite a lot of trouble for it."

All The children laughed loudly.

Miss Blue carried on... "There was Bert Quigley, who they called Sicknote 'cos he was always complaining of things such as stomach aches, and there was..."

Miss Blue carried on through a list of characters who she knew best, then she heard a quiet and timid voice calling her.

"Miss".

"Yes who said something?"

"Me Miss, Helen"

"Yes Helen what would you like to know."

"Why did they stop showing it on the tele?" she asked very questiony of her teacher.

"I'm not quite sure, but we might be able to find out once we get inside."

Then a man arrived in a dirty wite van and handed Miss Blue the keys, then he quickly dashed off again. Then all of the children entered the station with happy faces, their trip wont be as bad as they thought it would be.

First put online on the 23RD September 2000

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