They used water to extinguish the flames as there was not that much petrol about. Other factors to be considered were that they were at a car which had rammed the building and could explode anytime and it could be easily seen that there were gas jets emmiting from the side of the vehicle. Therefore water was used from behind whatever cover was available. Hose reels were used initially as time is required to set into a fire hydrant, a reel will provide water for some 20 minutes while the main line would empty the tank in 30 seconds. The appliances carry foam tanks and they were subsequentl;y used but this had to wait until the appliances were connected to hydrants.