Seventy-five valiant firefighters braved 800 degree Fahrenheit temperatures for eight tortuous hours in a fierce blaze which is estimated will cost Belco $10 million.

Bermuda Fire Service Lt. Dana Lovell said the initial call of a structural fire at the power plant on Serpentine Road came in at 3.01 a.m.

?It was ultra-intense,? Lt. Lovell said. ?There was an unusual intensity of orange rolling flames. It is almost like a blow torch.?

The heat buckled thick steel beams and concrete.

?Concrete and steel expand at the same rate so we got some very large cracks appearing and buckled the wall,? he said. ?The heat was crazy.?

An exhausted firefighter who did not want to be named said there was an intense degree of danger.

?I got here after 3 a.m.,? he said. ?Thick smoke was billowing out of there then all of a sudden the flames jumped in. Then I heard the thing go off in an explosion.?

Belco?s chief operating officer Vince Ingham said the flames were something he never wanted to see again. He said fire fighters succeeded in keeping the fire contained.

Although the valiant firemen had some protective clothing and breathing apparatus they were exhausted after their ordeal.

?The fire gear affords them coverage of that. It doesn?t completely remove the heat,? Lt. Lovell said. Fifteen fire vehicles responded to the call from Hamilton, Port Royal and Clearwater Fire Stations.

The centre of the carnage was an 80 by 20 foot switchboard room, which housed a 22,000 volt board and high-tension cables.

The building had concrete walls, a hollow rib and concrete roof, switchboard, fuel, and 2,000 gallons of transformer oil.

The 2,000 gallons of oil made it difficult to extinguish, Lt. Lovell said. ?Oil will not burn if you put a match to it,? Lt. Lovell said.

The vapour of gasoline is flammable for example, however, in order to put the oil fire out, firefighters had to reduce the temperature of the oil.

?Hence, the foam,? he said. Protein foam was used to extinguish the blaze. ?Foam was very, very effective in smothering the fire.?

Belco staff and the Fire Service will keep a vigil for ?potential perimeter fires?.

At 8.33 a.m. he said the fire was under control, but it had not been fully extinguished.

Contingency plans were thrown into action to cover and respond to fire and or medical calls for the remainder of the Island during crisis.

There were 14 fire alarms and six medical calls incidents, he said.

The Fire Service issued several safety advisories in the wake of the crisis: Portable electrical generators should be used in ventilated areas, it said. And candles should be used in appropriate holders.

Electrical items, taps and faucets should be turned off prior to the restoration of power, it said.

A brave firefighter spoke to about his experience, the danger he faced, and the need to carry out his duty.

When he arrived at the scene, he said the blaze was well underway and there was lot of smoke coming out.

?Well, it was serious! The flames were coming over our heads and my partner and I were like ten feet away from the entrance and at one point it was like a back draft and flames started coming out,? he said.

?When it happened we regressed to a safer point. We then had our little section that we were fighting using water to cool it down. Another crew that was nearby was fighting the fire with foam.

?There was a pop, pop, pop and oil was in there because it was running out of the fire while we were spraying it down. There was lots of oil on our clothes. Oil was everywhere.?

The firefighter said he was not sure what was stored in the room, but he thought he saw old-looking cabinets with steel doors, he said

?I don?t know what was stored in that room, but about ten feet from there was a kerosene tank and if that was exposed that would have went up and there is no idea what would have happened.?

The building?s structure was weakening due to the stress inflicted by the prolonged and intense heat. In order to properly reach and ultimately extinguish the fire they had to take drastic measures.

?The ceiling began to deteriorate and was in danger of falling so they bought in an excavation machine to take off the front and the roof off the building,? he said.

?This was so we could really get in and fight the fire. We had been fighting it with foam, but it wasn?t suppressing it enough. The blaze was actually getting bigger and at one point there were blue flames from the electrical things that were on fire.?

During this ordeal he was so hyped that did not think about his personal safety.

?I wasn?t really scared ? when the adrenaline in rushing you really don?t take your life into account per se ? although, you know what can happen,? he said.

?But as far as I know, I am there and I need to get this fire out. It is later on when you start reviewing what you did and you then think your safety is worth more than this job.

?But, the job has to be done ? and I knew that when I became a firefighter. And I also know that any day I could die because when everyone is running out ? we are running into it.?

?From what I could see the effort was well coordinated, everyone had a clear plan of what they needed to do, and they made sure that everyone was informed and briefed.?