One afternoon Peter and Jim went out for a bicycle ride. When they passed a place they saw a large area of grass and bushes on fire and a strong wind was blowing the flames towards a village. The firemen had already arrived and were trying to put out the fire. The boys left their bicycles and ran towards the village to see if they could help to fight the fire. On the way they met two firemen.  "Quick, you boys," said one of the firemen. "Come and help us to pull a pump   to the stream. We can't beat out the fire. The wind is too strong. The pump is our only hope."  The two boys ran further until they came to a heavy pump. They helped to pull it to a stream not far from the village.  Soon the pump was working well so the boys went to watch the fire. It had already reached the edge of the village. The boys saw that two houses were on fire, and the flames were attacking a third building. Suddenly there was a shout from one of the villagers.  "Keep away!" a voice shouted. "There's paint stored in that building." The boys and villagers moved away quickly. With a loud explosion  , the whole building burst into flames, sending clouds of thick black smoke into the sky.  At this time Peter and Jim began to think that the whole village would be burnt to the ground. The firemen had left the burning buildings and were pouring   water onto the neighboring houses, trying to stop the fire from spreading. Then the wind died down. A second pump was brought up to help, and the fire was gradually put out.  "It's soon finished," Peter said to his friend. "We must go or we shall get home late." "Yes, come on," agreed Jim, and with a last look at the ruins, they walked back to their bicycles. The villagers were told to keep away from the fire mainly because   _  .
their help was unnecessary it was spreading very rapidly two burning buildings were falling down one of the buildings stored a lot of paint