Fire is the third episode of Season 1.
Plot
The episode starts off with Edward introducing Mickey, the chief of the Fire & Rescue Service, which maintains safety and travelling conditions on Sodor, helping in accidents and breakdowns and if necessary, taking a distressed engine to the works, and in response to a track-side fire. Mickey was widely respected by both Midis and Nor'easters, since he was independent and helped any engine who needed it, regardless of their livery, albeit giving ponderous lectures to those who had mishaps.
One day, Thomas was on his way to Elsbridge Harbour with Annie and Clarabel filled with workmen when he finds Mickey and his men at a fire drill. He talks with Mickey before continuing on. The new harbour was a project which was part of the Sodor Construction Scheme, a government initiative to create jobs for Sodor during the Great Depression. Edward and Percy are talking about how quickly things are built when Thomas arrives with the workmen to do serious dredging so deep-drown ships can approach. Edward tells Thomas to leave Annie & Clarabel by the station and bring over a line of trucks near there.
As Thomas buffers up to the trucks, he wonders where James is, since he was supposed to be there an hour ago. It turns out that the turntable at Calden had jammed. All James could do was complain while the workmen tried to fix the turntable. Soon, the turntable is fixed and James gets onto it, but then, Douglas was shunting some trucks into the siding he needed to access his train. Suddenly, Douglas's trucks derail. Luckily, the derailed trucks didn't block off the siding James needed to access his train. James had found a silver lining to this: Douglas needed to explain the incident to Mickey. James then sets off down the line, as fast as he can to make up for the lost time. However, because of the speed, one of the axle boxes on one of his trucks was starting to overheat and spark. In the darkness of Ballahoo Tunnel, the guard noticed this and threw on the brakes. After inspecting the truck, the guard told James's crew that they could still go on, but at a very slow pace so they wouldn't risk damaging the truck any more. No one knew that at the other end of the tunnel, a spark from the truck had landed in a dry brush and was starting to simmer.
At Lower Knapford, Thomas and Percy are shunting about talking about the news from Germany when James arrives. James doesn't take too kindly to Thomas's joking when suddenly, Mickey appears, sirens ablaze, and races off to the place where the spark from James's train had landed in the bush. Lily was nearby and raised the alarm and Sodor Electrical had shut off the power. Soon, Mickey arrives and the firemen set to work dousing the flames. The fire was doused, leaving behind scorched earth. The nearby signalmen, as a witness, told Mickey how fast James went by his signal box. "I wouldn't want to be James right now." Lily said to herself.
Meanwhile, Mickey has caught up with James at Elsbridge. Mr. Star then arrives and speaks severely to James. Mickey informs the Nor'easter controller that James's actions have caused damage to the power grid at all of Lower Knapford will likely be without power until the pole is replaced. In order cover the cost of the repairs, his engines will have to take on extra jobs because the government has been lax in giving them the payment for the harbor contract. Mr. Star tells James that he'll be working at the mines until further notice. During this conversation, Diesel had been nearby and he told the rest of the Midis.
For the next week, while James was stuck at the mines with the teasing trucks for company, the other six engines have to take on James's work and the extra jobs as well as their own, while the Midis kept teasing them. Gordon meets up with Percy at Knapford and complains about the indignity of pulling goods trains, while Percy points out he isn't the only one to suffer, since he and Thomas have shunted every truck on the Island twice over.
At the Midi's upgraded yard at Wellsworth, Thomas has finished shunting a goods train when Diesel and Colin arrive and taunt Thomas. Colin then sneezes out smoke from his funnel, which clears out his smoke box, something Diesel told him to do. The two Midis head off when Thomas suddenly notices their trucks have caught fire from Colin's sneeze. Colin tries to push the train out of the shed but only causes the fire to spread even more and some of the coal spills out. Even worse, there are two tar wagons in the shed. The three engines quickly retreat to the far side of the yard and Diesel's driver goes to telephone Mickey. The yard's workmen join the three engines, but the foreman notices Cooper is missing, with one saying he last saw him near the water tower near the shed. Thomas decides to go back and look for him. Thomas finds Cooper, with a twisted ankle, and his crew help him aboard, but Thomas's safety valve bursts. Luckily for him, Colin is able to come to his rescue. Soon, Mickey arrives and his crew puts out the fire.
After the fire is put out and is finished at Wellsworth, Mickey takes Thomas to the workshops at Crovan's Gate where Skarloey, Percy and Edward are. Mickey scolds Thomas for his recklessness, but nonetheless commends him for his bravery. Not long after the repairs at Wellsworth were completed, Mickey gave both the Midis and Nor'easters a long, dull lecture about fire safety. However, it had been a long time afterwards before another fire happened on Sodor that was an engine's fault.
Characters
- Thomas
- Edward
- Gordon
- James
- Percy
- Douglas
- Diesel
- Colin
- Mickey
- Annie and Clarabel
- Mickey's Water Tankers
- Some Trucks
- Mr. Star
- Thomas' Driver (Gavin or John)
- Thomas' Fireman (Gavin or John)
- Edward's Driver
- James' Driver and Fireman
- One of Lily's Crew
- Henry's Tunnel Signalman
- Wellsworth Yard Foreman
- Cooper
- A Workman
- Lily
- Skarloey (does not speak)
- Mr. Zorro (does not speak)
- James' Guard (does not speak)
- Mickey's Firefighters (does not speak)
- Henry (cameo)
- Toby (cameo)
- Donald (cameo)
- Adam (cameo)
- Reginald (cameo)
- Adolf Hitler (mentioned)
Trivia
- An older version of this video can be found on YouTube, but Victor Tanzig remade it (along with several others from Season 1) because he was unhappy with it and embarrassed by the fast narration.
- In the scene where Thomas is taken to the works, SI3D's model of Skarloey can be seen, although WildNorWester's model is normally used