Mr Hippo,
Your last post jogged an old memory. Back in the '70's when I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, the authorities at Dhahran Airport upgraded the fire services. As was the case with most of the services in the country at that time, the personnel were expatriate (mostly Indians and Pakistani's). They were paraded before the press in full kit, flame retardant suits, masks and head covering - the works. Sadly those who had organised the photo op forgot to tell the lads to get rid of their habitual footwear.
Yup - you guessed it. Full state of the art firefighting kit and flipflops. The guys from BAC (now BAe) who witnessed the event were in hysterics.