It was a scene, no doubt, that many a government department would love to have orchestrated. A group of 40 journalists, all guests of the government, were treated to lunch, given a tour of a new facility and led into a room that was then promptly set on fire.
As hot flames swooped overhead, the hacks couldn't help but wonder who they'd annoyed this time.
Luckily for them, the government department in question was Fire Services and some firemen bedecked in fire-resistant suits, masks and hoses were on hand to douse the flames before any of the journos got char-grilled.
The fiery demonstration was part of the Fire Services Department's press tour this week of its training facility in Tsim Sha Tsui, where firemen abseiled down a nine-storey building, found their way blindly through smoke-filled training cage corridors and climbed in and out of air-conditioning chutes in full breathing apparatus.
The training facility also includes areas that double as hotel or apartment rooms where the firemen went through the motions of extinguishing infernos before some of the assembled rosy-cheeked and slightly alarmed journalists.
