Fire Safety For The Family

Comic and magician Alan Lysall, along with his Great Escape Club of young boys and girls, demonstrate the basics of fire safety in the home. After stressing that smoke can be just as much of a killer as fire, Lysall has the children watch a demonstration fire-seeing just how little time it takes to gut a house. Following the demo, the group sets to work on an emergency escape plan: setting up two exits for every room, showing the proper method (roll and crawl) for leaving an area, how to test a closed door for heat, etc. The program concludes with an emergency drill. Unfortunately, at least one-third of this very short video is devoted to humor-some of it rather inappropriate. For example, after telling the children to never use an elevator in an apartment complex during a fire, the kids are shown opening an elevator, and being greeted by Lysall throwing a bucket of confetti on them. Not a word about the way fire is drawn up an elevator shaft. And, after mentioning that faulty wire can cause a fire, the subject is immediately dropped in favor of playing out a pointless skit involving flashlights and ice cream. While there's no bogus information on this tape, there's much left unsaid. We recommend you wait for a more serious approach to the subject. Not recommended. (See THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE for availability.)