The theme for the mural is the greek Legend of Fire .

The legend begins with young Phaeton, son of Helios the Sun God, driving his father's fiery "sun" chariot across the sky, but he loses control of the stampeding horses only to plunge closer and closer towards the earth. At the last moment he gains control again and veers the fiery chariot away from the earth, but he has come too close to the earth and the fire from the chariot starts enormous fires killing nearly all the people and vegetation.

The mighty Zeus, the strongest and most powerful god of them all, hearing of the disater became very angry with Phaeton and struck him with a thunderbolt......ouch.

Many years later the earth was re populated by the gods, Epimetheus and Prothetheus, but the people were very cold and they huddled in caves all the time. Prometheus wanted to give his people something that would make them powerful. He decided that the best gift he could give them was Fire.

Prometheus travelled deep into the heavens and found Zeus, keeper of the fire. Prometheus stole fire from the sun. Quickly he sped back to earth to give the fire to his people. Zeus was furious with Prometheus for stealing the fire. Zeus punished Prometheus. Zeus also sent a woman called Pandora to punish the earth people. He gave Pandora a magic box and told her not to open it. Pandora came to the earth. She was very curious about the box and could not resist opening it. The box contained all the miseries of sickness, greed, envy, jealousy and all the destructive elements of Fire. All these miseries poured out onto the earth. Pandora slammed the lid closed but only one thing was left in the box. Hope.

And so the legend goes, since that time, miseries and fire have spread over the earth tormenting the people.

Thank heavens for fire fighters...!!

The mural on the MFB Building in Albert Street depicts this Legend of Fire. Take a look next time you visit the Fire Services Museum.