by Nicholas Cole

Created on: December 10, 2008

Just for readers who are not familiar with British history a few lines about Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators tried to kill King James I at the state opening of Parliament by attempting to blow up the houses of Parliament in 1605 however the conspirators were caught red hand in the cellars of the Palace of Westminster, and all were executed for treason. If you want to know any more try Wikipedia.

The failed plot has been celebrated in Briton on the 5th of November for years with organized bonfire parties, firework displays, and back yard bonfire parties. But the strangest bonfire party I ever went to was when I was a retained Fireman with the West Midlands Fire Service.

I remember this day because it was actually November the 5th, and I think it was a Thursday? We had been called to a junkyard that had a massive bonfire blazing away right in the centre of it. The gates to the yard were open and we drove in for a closer look. The bonfire was huge; a column of thick black smoke rose into the air for hundreds of feet, and then by some quirk of nature was being forced back to the ground blacking out two or three streets several hundred yards away. A closer look at the bonfire revealed it was not your usual pile of pallets, scrap wood, and old furniture. No this was electrical cable thick heavy-duty stuff. The guy who owned the yard was burning off the cable insulation so he could get a better price for the copper. The practice of burning off insulation is illegal because of the toxic fumes it gives off. The leading fireman wasted no more time " get two lines of hose run out quick as you like" he said. Two guys ran out hose from the engine towards the fire and the driver and another guy connected three or four lengths of hose from the street hydrant to the engine. Before we could start to dowse the flames a voice boomed out "don't put any water on that!" it was the junkyard owner he came striding out of the darkness dragging more cable to feed the flames. "This is a private bonfire party you have got no rights here", we all looked around where were his guests, where's the drinks, where's the food? The leading Fireman rounded on him "What a load of rubbish you thought you would do a bit of illegal burning and nobody would notice because it's Guy Fawkes Night, we have every right to put it out!"

"Right we'll see I want to keep this yard dry, we'll see", screamed the junkyard owner and dropping his armful of cables ran off onto the dark. Suddenly there

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