Science, Please: Fire
The video opens in darkness, then a white chalk sketch appears, shaping an eye with a vertical line under it, centered in a green, concentric circle. As the camera zooms out, this image multiplies and is repeated on all six sides of a rotating cube, revealing the text ‘NFB ONF’ on the bottom.
Next, we see ‘The National Film Board of Canada’ presents, displayed above a grayscale image of North America on a globe, and then a cartoon caveman is shown standing by a campfire, striking the wood, which turns him black, and then he yells ‘Fire!’. The word “Fire” is in animated yellow letters. A monochrome clip shows a baby in a crib, and a man tending to a fire. Next, a man’s face and mustache contorts in anguish, and then a woman beats the fire with a blanket. The narrator says, “Fire is a chemical reaction that produces light and heat. This reaction occurs between something that can burn, and the oxygen in the air.”
The caveman, in a color cartoon, looks through a microscope at a piece of wood. A view through the microscope shows colored circles, red with a C in it and blue with an H in it, with faces and interconnected lines. The narrator says, “At the molecular level, wood, like all other things that can burn, contains carbon and hydrogen.” The caveman is shown rubbing sticks to create fire, and the diagram shows a red C and two blue Hs separating from each other and recombining with two white circles with Os in them.
The narrator states, “To make fire, you have to provide a little heat to the wood. This heat breaks the bonds between the carbon and the hydrogen. Once they’re free, the carbon and hydrogen create new bonds with the oxygen in the air. This chemical reaction produces a lot of heat. This heat breaks more carbon hydrogen bonds. New bonds are formed and produce even more heat and fire.”
The scene cuts to a real-life firefighter in front of a burning house, speaking into a telephone. He is wearing a navy blue jacket, dark cap and black gloves. The text reads “Say Fire?” and “Where?” is asked. The narrator claims, “Fire causes a lot of damage, but human ingenuity has harnessed its power to toast tasty marshmallows,” and the cartoon shows the caveman sharing toasted marshmallows with an elephant. The video then ends with credits.
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