1.
SV PAN Firemen competing to see how quickly they can dress (2 shots)
0.10

2.
GV PAN Two contestants running obstacle race
0.18

3.
GV Starting marshall looking at stopwatch
0.19

4.
TV Contestant climbing up drainpipe (3 shots)
0.34

5.
SV PAN of fire engines driving alongside crowd.
0.40

6.
SV Smoke bellowing from top of makeshift building and Pan to firemen scaling wall (2 shots)
0.51

7.
SV Firemen putting out fire with extinguishers.
0.53

8.
CU PAN fire engine rushing to demonstration fire
1.00

9.
GV and SV firemen with firehose putting out fire (2 shots)
1.14

10.
SV Extinguisher firing foam over almost dead fire
1.13



Initials HS/



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Twelve hundred of Peking's crack fire-fighters demonstrated their skill before a large crowd in the Chinese capital recently.

SYNOPSIS: After a fire alarm the first job is to don protective clothing. There's no quicker dresser than a Chinese fireman.

And as for longer events, like the one hundred metre obstacle race...

It's a new national record.

The drainpipe climbing competition calls for a head for heights and the grip of a monkey ... it's not as easy as it looks. And as it's possibly the only way into a burning building it's valuable skill for the Peking firemen.

Sophisticated fire fighting machinery was also on display during the fire-man's competition.

In an effort to make the competition as realistic as possible, multi-storeyed buildings were constructed in the stadium and firemen used special ladder to scale the walls.

Peking television says that with the majority of Peking housewives now relying on gas stoves to do their cooking, there's a very real threat of a liquid gas can exploding and causing a fire. The Peking firemen say that a fire extinguisher which ejects foam is still the most reliable method of putting out burning gas or liquid.