Fires Miscellaneous (film #1396 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Industrial]

This 30s firefighting film is a whole potpourri of firefighting stuff. It starts with a whole bunch of demonstrations of different firefighting techniques and equipment, including a showing of what the fire chief keeps in his car. These segments have a somewhat goofy quality to them, as if the firemen weren’t taking them all that seriously. Then there’s footage from a bunch of different fires. Most of these are humongous blazes that cause tremendous destruction. One segment appears to show injured and dead firemen being pulled out of rubble. This is one of the more interesting Stillman films, with something to please just about every fire buff (not to mention pyro) out there.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.