THERE was no smoke, so there was no fire - indeed, these Accrington firemen were answering a different call.

No, they weren't pulling their fire appliance to a major incident, back in 1989 - any blaze would likely have burnt itself out before they arrived on the scene if they had been - but the men were taking part in a money raising event.

They were participating in a sponsored appliance pull - well, it was a push, too - for the Telegraph has another image in its archives, which shows three of their colleagues putting their full weight into the job from the back.

It's maybe as well, for apart from the front two, there doesn't appear to be all that much straining from their colleagues.

It was a lovely spring day for the effort, and there are people on the pavements offering the firemen every encouragement.

Do you remember the event? How far did they manage to pull the engine, which is likely to have weighed in excess of 12 tons and how much money did they raise?

If you have any images from the past to share with readers in our popular looking back pages, email gill.johnson@nqnw.co.uk.