The Tale of the Fire Ghost

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Air Date: Saturday, December 10, 1994
Storyteller: Tucker (Daniel DeSanto)

Frame: The episode opens with Sam (Joanna Garcia) and Kiki (Jodie Resther) fighting about how someone stole Kiki's sweater from Sam's locker. That's when Tucker comes running in with the water bucket, tripping and spilling it, and his older brother, Gary (Ross Hull), starts insulting him for being a clumsy fool. Betty Ann (Raine Pare-Coull) puts a stop to the bickering with a sharp whistle and invites people to cool out so they can start the meeting, with Tucker up for storytelling. Conveniently, Tucker's story involves things getting "heated up."

Story: During a surprise party for divorced father, Dan Preston (Larry Day), at his fire station, where his kids, Jimmy (Myles Ferguson) and Roxy (Vanessa King), learn about a "fire ghost" who supposedly haunts the station, they are left alone due to an emergency call. When the power goes out, and Jimmy lights a candle for some light, and soon learns the horrible truth about the vengeful fire ghost (Tim Post) being real, unleashing it by looking into the candle's flame. Soon, Jimmy and Roxy find themselves face-to-face with the victim of a fire, who is out for revenge against the whole station for not having gotten to him in time.

Review: It's hard to get my head around how I really feel about this one. On the one hand, the part of the story related to Jimmy's bitterness over his parents' divorce feels unnecessary. This story primarily revolves around battling a vengeful spirit. On the other hand, the episode does bear a creepy atmosphere, and I like the design of the fire ghost, finding him genuinely disturbing. But unfortunately, the solution for stopping the spirit is painfully simple. It's one of the most middle-of-the-road episodes I can think of, but it would have been effective if I had seen it as a kid, as around this point, I had started channel surfing past this show.

Final Rating: Spooked

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