the californian wildfires are the deadliest the state has ever seen. they have claimed the lives of more than 80 people, hundreds are missing, and whole towns have been destroyed. but as residents tried to escape, the firefighters did what they always do — they ran towards the danger. it is a profession that relies on courage, education, and increasingly, the latest science and technology to better understand how fires behave and how to beat back the flames. and if you want to be a firefighter, this is where you learn your craft — the international fire training centre in darlington, in the north of england. this is where brave firefighters come from around the world to learn the latest techniques in fighting all kinds of blazes. they can simulate a huge variety

of fire scenarios here — oil rigs, industrialfires, that's an overturned fuel tanker, and they can simulate any size of aircraft, from the smallest to the largest. that is an airbus a380 and this is a boeing 747. and it is notjust about gearing up and grabbing the hose. every fire is different. and each needs to be treated intelligently to make sure that you, and the people you're trying to save, have the best chance of survival. wow! oh, my goodness! they're using the water as a protective shield. so they're keeping the two fires apart using the water, keeping the left hand at bay and then extinguishing the right one, before we deal with the left. the centre tries to make each

scenario as realistic as possible. not just the fire, but the treatment of the casualties, too. it's fascinating to see the science behind firefighting. for example, in a kerosene fuel fire, water won't put it out. this cone of water controls the blaze, so that another firefighter can come in with a powder extinguisher. that is what finally tames the flames. and, once they're gone, does that mean the job is done? well, that's where this thermal imaging camera comes in, to see what our eyes cannot. so once it looks like the fire is out, you still have to cover the area in water, just in case there are some hotspots. you can see here the vent in the top of this engine is still white—hot, according to this thermal imaging camera. and there are many other ways to detect and deal with fires,

and lara lewington has been looking at some of them. for the past two years, half of the uk's fire brigades have been deploying these drones. they focus on the safety of firefighters, and their on—board hd and thermal imaging cameras can provide much greater visibility, which means a better understanding of a fire and the way that it's spreading. using a drone, we can get pretty much an instant overview of the whole fire in less than five minutes and start moving our machines and firefighters around like chess pieces, really, all controlled by drone footage. it brings a massive benefit, as we can see fires as they're developing. the team here have also used them for rescues and searching for people in quarries or water — the hd camera being able to clearly

zoom in on a face up to half a mile away. but, of course, when it comes to the spread of fires, what's happened recently in california is at the forefront of our minds. well, the university of westminster is researching a system that combines sensors on the ground and those in a drone. the aim — a solution for wildfires. these solar—powered prototype sensors are tracking carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxygen, humidity, temperature, gps and altitude. the aim is to combine them into one miniaturised, cost—effective version which could be deployed en masse in areas susceptible to wildfires, providing immediate feedback. if there is something, they will alert all their neighbours also, form into a network, alert taken, take measurements, convey to the master node, which then conveys it further up to the server, which then alerts the drones that come up to give a visual.

the plane comes with all the information it has got from the drones, from the ground sensors, and it knows what the wind speed is, what the direction is, what the temperature variations are, and comes over the fire, it knows where the fire will be when it rendezvous with that and then it makes a release from the air and then you have the heavens opening with these lovely pellets flying in and hitting the target when the fire is. and you can fight fires day and night, 2a hours a day, with no visibility. meanwhile, this is the stinger. it can pierce through metal and pretty much any roof, dramatically blasting foam or water into the heart of a blaze. the quantity and force of that water is pretty incredible. this pumps 1,000 litres a minute, with an even more powerfuljet to the side capable

of 4.5 times that. it also has an on—board thermal imaging camera to assist with that precision. blackburn is currently the only uk fire service using this kit, though. i'm told it costs around £600,000. but maybe as costs come down and all this technology evolves, this next generation of firefighting will become the norm. i'm at leicestershire fire and rescue — the first service in the country to invest in virtual reality. their hope is that money will be saved by replacing some of the expensive traditional training techniques with vr alternatives. i've seen the demo and the fire looks quite intense,

so i don't think it's going to be what i'm used to when it comes to virtual reality, which isjust having a nice time. let's see! all the scenes in the training are scanned from the real world. for instance, this arson hotspot in leicester is a good reference for investigators looking for clues. it's the inside of a destroyed smoke alarm. ijust need to say, like, the environment is, like, i'm standing on ash. it feels very real. teleportation. oh, my gosh. 0k, there's a body down there. if you enjoy your training, you're going to get more out of it. it's already been proven. there's a study in the united states that if you train in the virtual reality environment, the retention rate is 75%. most of my talks i do on road safety are powerpoint. we tend to make 5%. you can see why we are looking at this, because our training is going to be enhanced so much. and if you want to skip 10 seconds

forward, you can do it on the controller — you can just skip forward and fast—forward the fire. if you remember from the scene you saw a minute ago, that tv monitor was completely melted. you can see how it physically affects things that are not even burning yet. yes, then the idea is, obviously, as this stops, we didn't show the people putting out the fire, but you get the ability to dive straight back in the scene, and you're in that same burn scene. yeah. yeah, seeing the impact of that fire is pretty remarkable. it moves quickly. part of the reason this experience feels so intense is the realism behind it. for leicestershire fire and rescue, this was important — that they move away from gamification and into real life. they have been working with a company called rivr to make this happen.

the scenes are created using photogrammetry. both cameras and lasers photographing real life, 360—degree scenarios, up to thousands of times. we've seen how fire services are using virtual reality, but what about other first responders? here at the defence science and technology laboratory, they are hard at work on how police might use virtual reality in theirtraining. number 7 ferguson house, caller reports sounds of a violent disturbance. oh, wow. i can see some feet already. so i don't think that people wouldn't expect to put the police and virtual reality together. why is it so important that the police are interacting with technology in this way? you can replicate one—off events. so a one—off event which could be a dangerous or hazardous environment, you can actually recreate as a one—off, and people would never, ever get the opportunity to rehearse that. but in vr, we can, so we can give them that vehicle and give them that opportunity to do a one—off scenario and do it safely. there we go — oh, my gosh!

ok, i'm going to see if the woman is alive. she's obviously taken some pills. there's a heartbeat here. i can definitely see already how it could be used to — in the way that a lot of games are, really, to open up your mind to possibilities around crime, why people may have committed criminal activities. those kind of questions are definitely there already. yeah, that was more enjoyable than the fire one, i think! which perhaps shouldn't be my takeaway. but i, um — like, ooh, i could go back into that world, whereas the fire scene, ijust wanted to get out. and that's it for the short cut of click from the international fire training centre. the full—length version comes highly recommended, trust me, and it's waiting for you on iplayer right now. and we'll put some more amazing footage from this place up on social media, too, on facebook and on twitter. we live at @bbcclick.

for now, thanks for watching, and we will see you soon! after days of cloudy weather, a com plete after days of cloudy weather, a complete change on the way in the coming days, at lanting weather systems will knock on our door from tuesday. monday is still looking fine across the uk if you do not mind chilly winds. this is what it looks like over the next few hours. the wind out of the east continues to drag in showers. temperatures by early on monday above freezing in

city centres. 0utside early on monday above freezing in city centres. outside of town there will be a touch of frost ridiculously across northern and north—western areas. the easterly wind will continue to bring a lot of thick cloud to the east of the country from london and halted edinburgh. in the west we will have some sunshine for cardiff, liverpool and glasgow. tuesday morning onwards those weather fronts startling themselves up in the atlantic and head our way and on top of that increasing winds. the rain reaches cornwall and devon and parts of wales and eventually belfast by the afternoon. for most of the day northern areas will stay dry and it could be misty and foggy for a time. in the middle of the week low pressure well and truly in charge. dominating the whole of the north atlantic. with that comes milder weather which will be reaching all parts of the country by wednesday. lots of showers, gale force winds,

even lots of showers, gale force winds, eve n severe lots of showers, gale force winds, even severe gales around some of the western coast. in many cases you could double and even triple these wind speeds to get the gust. temperatures 11! in london, i! degrees in the north, so double figures throughout the country. on thursday will pressure close by with strong winds and mild air and frequent showers but between the showers you will get the sunshine u nless showers you will get the sunshine unless you are under a weather front. there will be one across southern areas. then the weather brea ks southern areas. then the weather breaks and you can see some sunshine developing through the middle part of the day. it will not be raining all the time. 11! degrees in london but it will not feel like that in the wind and the showers. 0n but it will not feel like that in the wind and the showers. on friday will pressure across the country bringing further strong winds to the south. this is bbc news.

the headlines at 8: theresa may urges parliament and the public to back her brexit deal after its endorsement at today's eu summit. the british people don't want to spend any more time arguing about brexit. they want a good deal done that fulfils the vote, and allows us to come together again as the country. jean—claude juncker, president of the european commission, issues a warning to those mps who think the eu can be persuaded to make further changes. this is the best deal possible for britain. possible for europe. this is the only deal possible. donald tusk, who chaired the summit, says the european union wants to remain as close as possible to the uk after brexit.

regardless of how it will all end, one thing is certain. we will remain friends until the end of days.