If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Phil the Fire Engine: The Barn Fire

by Dave Fanning

14 pages; Saddle stitched; illustrated children's book; catalogue #06-0335; ISBN 1-4120-8579-9; US$7.30, C$8.40, EUR6.00, £4.20

Phil is the fire engine that can educate school children through emergencies that he has to deal with. Phil is proud of his appearance as "he likes to be clean so he can be seen".

Read more!

About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

hil is the fire engine at Mossy Moor Fire Station. Mossy Moor is in Valley End.

There are 4 Fire Fighters who help Phil put out the fires and deal with any other emergencies, they are Roger, Robin, Robert and Rhani (who is the Female Fire Fighter).

They all take turns to be in charge of the fire engine. Phil is a very proud fire engine who always wants to be shiny clean. His bright red paint-work, his shiny silver bell and his two blue flashing beacons must always be gleaming. Phil gets very upset when he is dirty. The times he gets upset, he cries, big tears fall down across the windscreen and the windscreen wipers have to dry the tears off the window so Phil can see where he is going!

The Fire Fighters always tell Phil that they will clean off the dirt at the fire station and he will be shiny and clean again. When they do clean him with soap and brushes under his black wheels, Phil starts to laugh because the brushes tickle him!

Phil likes to go to Mossy Moor School where he and the fire fighters tell the children not to play with matches, not to make false alarm calls to the Fire Brigade and to be careful in the kitchen near hot pans.

Phil got his name from his number plate PH 1L, when the fire fighters saw the number plate, they decided to name their new fire engine ... Phil The Fire Engine.

---

About the Author

Dave Fanning joined Merseyside Fire Brigade as a 16 year old cadet firefighter in 1964, serving at many Fire Stations in Liverpool from 1966 to 1982 both as a fire fighter and a fire officer. In 1982, he began his association with Toxteth Fire Station which lasted ten years, returning to Toxteth in 1995 as the Station Commander before retiring after 35 years of service in 1999.

Whilst serving at Toxteth after the well publicised riots in 1981, Dave realised that some kind of scheme needed to be introduced in the local schools to reduce the number of fires where small children were being killed or seriously burnt.

After a fatal fire he attended in 1985, when an 18 month old girl was burnt to death in a fire started by her 3 year old brother, Dave designed a programme for local schools where a fire fighter would belong to a group of schools. He/She would go into the school and tell the children about the dangers of matches, hoax calls and starting fires.

At that time, he also created a character to get the message across - Phil the Fire Engine was born. Unfortunately Dave's ideas did not go down well with Merseyside Fire Brigade at that time, as such schemes were foreign to most fire brigades back then. So, Dave wrote a number of stories about Phil attending fires, car crashes, and carrying out all sorts of rescues.

In 1995, when Dave returned to Toxteth Fire Stations as the Station Commander, Dave now had the authority to implement his school fire fighter scheme. In two years, the scheme earned two Business in The Community Awards, one of which was presented by Prince Charles at Lancaster House in London. The scheme was an amazing success, small fires were reduced by over 75%, hoax calls reduced by 70% and not one child was injured in a fire in Toxteth from 1995 to 1999.

Phil's stories have been hidden in a cupboard for almost 20 years, now Dave has been encouraged to publish the tales for all small children to enjoy, especially those who like fire engines.

Phil is looking for someone to sponsor his books so children everywhere can understand the danger of Fire and the wonderful work that Fire Fighters do every day in this country.

I wish you lots of fire-free healthy days, enjoy Phil the Fire Engine.

My very best wishes to You All.

Dave Fanning 2005

---

Excerpts

---