Fire courses through the veins of John Verity.

John's father was a fireman. So was his brother. When John, of Bishopthorpe, York, retired after 30 years serving as a firefighter and preventer all over Yorkshire in February, 1994, he was assistant divisional officer for fire safety at York.

And he never stopped being an avowed foe of flames.

The result was Ainsty Fire Training Services, his one-man mission to ensure that people, whether individuals or corporations, knew that fiery enemy - and were armed against it.

Now with clients like the University of York, North Yorkshire Police, the University College of Ripon & York St John, Raflatak adhesives in Scarborough and the leisure services department of the City of York Council, John is bidding to become the 1998 Evening Press Business Venture of the Year.

He brings to his valuable work the expertise he gleaned after starting as a rookie fireman in York, transferring to Beverley in the old East Riding County Fire Brigade and after furious studying for promotion exams finding himself first as a leading fireman in Richmond, North Yorkshire, then as a sub-officer covering the little fire stations throughout the Dales. "Oh, it was dreadful during the summer," he says with a naughty twinkle in his eye.

He was promoted to officer in charge of a Harrogate shift in 1976 and the following year took over a fire safety role, moving to Ripon and transferring to York full circle in 1991 as assistant divisional fire safety officer.

On retirement he noted that the fire brigade was changing.

Local authorities were becoming increasingly commercial. And fire safety legislation was becoming hugely complicated. "So I decided to put to use all I had gleaned in a commercially-based fire safety advisory business."

He organises hour-long basic fire safety training courses looking at the chemistry of fire, the spread of fire and smoke, evacuation from fire and fire-safety in the workplace. Plus a half-hour's fire extinguisher training.

But he also organises three-hour fire warden and fire team training courses for big industrial or commercial organisations in which he simplifies fire safety legislation and relevant codes of practice, teaches them how to prevent the spread of fire, how to assess risk of outbreaks, emergency planning and evacuation management. There is also training in the practical use of firefighting equipment.Separate courses are provided for senior management with fire safety responsibility in the workplace.

John says: "I want to expand but I don't want my organisation to get too big. I want it to maintain its reputation for personal service. Perhaps some time in the future I may take on part-time staff for fire extinguisher demonstrations but that's about it.

And should he win the top £2,000 cash prize? "I'd spend it on upgrading my visual aid equipment," he says.

Why don't YOU enter your success story in the 1998 Evening Press Business Venture of the Year?

Already a steady trickle of firms have sent us either written entry forms or via our Internet website at www.eveningpress.co.uk driven by pride and more than £8,000 worth of prizes with the backing yet again of Barclays Bank and the North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council.

If your business is more than two years old, within the North and East Yorkshire circulation area of the Evening Press and has a turnover of less than £1 million, phone the Business Editor, Ron Godfrey, and ask for an entry form to be faxed to you. Or beam into the entry form on the Internet, if you are connected.

Apart from Ainsty Fire Services, of Bishopthorpe, York, entries also include a television production company, a microwave filter manufacturer, a florist, a residential training company and a tour operator. The title winner earns a cheque for £2,000 and £1,000 worth of free advertising in the Evening Press.

Runner-up gets £1,000 and £500 worth of free advertising; third place earns £500 plus £250 of free advertising.On top of that there are three special category prizes of £500 each - Trainer of the Year, Exporter of the Year and Personality of the Year.

All entries will be put into a grand draw with two separate prizes on offer - £250 of free advertising and your own single-page Evening Press web site online for literally the whole world to see and tap into for a year.

At some time during the course of the competition all entries will be featured in the Evening Press, some of them detailed profiles, often publicised worldwide on our Evening Press web site.

The final ten will receive free business advice from experts at North Yorkshire TEC.

Deadline for entries will be noon on Friday, August 7, and winners will be announced in November.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.