Prior to September 1939, Cyril Demarne had been fighting fires in the East End of London for fourteen years. On the outbreak of war he became one of the nucleus of professional firemen preparing men of the Auxiliary Fire Service for the maelstrom of the Blitz. This is a true story, told by a fireman in a way that only a fireman who experienced the horrors of the Blitz could tell it. It is a story of ordinary men and women in extraordinary circumstances who, with fortitude and great courage, became very far from ordinary.