We had a pot belly stove in our billets. Ticked off for wearing dress uniform( Blue) I hated khaki. We had been told we had to wash and dry them ourselves. We did and hung them over chairs to dry. We had been eating chocolates and winging about the job.

Called for tea, we went over to the cook house . In the middle of tea a girl said. "Don’t look now but i think the billet is on fire" Our reply , "Yea and pigs can fly." It was. I remember I grabbed a fire extinguisher. Banged it on the wall for foam and it ran away with me . An airman grabbed me by the pants and hauled me out of there

The fire bell , some on had pinched the hammer, and there was no water till they found some so it went up like Blackpol illuminations. Mrs Garside was carried out , Kathy left her knickers on the window catch . We all lost just about everything ! Some one could have lost their lives . luckily no one was hurt, just scared. I lived in Blackpool so I was sent home . I collapsed on the door step. O never went back to Weeton.

A month later my sister went out with an Airman that my mother invited in for a cup of tea. We were telling him the tale of the fire when he anounced he was some kind of insurance investigator for the RAF. Astoundingly he could piece together the whole senario, chocolates and all.

I didn’t think this was clever. I was scared to death and worried about the girls sleeping in the billets. It may sound frivilous or callus now but at the time it was traumatic and a stupid accident that could have been avoided.